Quick Authentic Italian Pizza Crust

Homemade Mushroom Pizza

I love homemade pizza and am always looking for tasty, quick, and easy recipes.  I got this yummy pizza crust from a cookbook I bought while on vacation in Italy. It is called 30-Minute Italian by Fran Warde.  I usually make a whole wheat pizza crust. However, I had to try this one when I realized it only uses three ingredients and the pizza crust does not use yeast. It is called Quick Pizza Base. My family loved it and my husband said it was so good he would have been happy about his purchase if we bought it at a restaurant. I have to say, I would agree. It was one of the best pizzas I have made.

preparation time 10 minutes
cooking time about 10 minutes
makes 4 small pizzas or 1 large pizza

Ingredients:

250 g/8 oz (1 cup) self-rising flour
1 teaspoon salt
150 ml/1/4 pint (1/3 cup) warm water

Directions: 

1. Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix well.  Slowly add the water and mix to form a soft dough. When it has bound together, mix the dough with your hands into a ball. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth and soft.

2. Divide the dough into 4 and, with your hands (flour your hands well) and a rolling pin (I did not use a rolling pin), flatten it as thinly as possible - or make one large square or circle (this is what I did). The pizza rounds do not have to be exact circles as that is one of the charms of making your own pizzas! Make the pizzas just a bit smaller than your serving plates and as thin as you can.

That is it!  Then add your toppings and bake in a preheated oven, 230⁰C (450⁰F) for approximately 10 minutes or until golden and sizzling.

I made mine simple and put tomato sauce, mushrooms, sprinkled some Italian herb seasoning, a little garlic salt, and topped with shredded mozzarella cheese.  If you want to make it more Italian-like, put sliced mozzarella cheese rather than shredded. On a hot day, serve with Italian Ice Tea. Guten Appetit!

Dot Paint is Fun!

I bought my son the Alex Toys Dot and Dashes Paint Set and Do-A-Dot Book: Discovering My World. He loved dot painting. I don't like messes and was not sure how this would turn out. Well, dot paint was not messy and my 2 year old had a blast painting with it. In fact, he even stayed mostly inside the lines. I was very impressed! I recommend dot paint to anyone with a young child learning how to paint and draw.

A fun, mess-free, indoor activity

First dot paint picture. Love it!

How do you get your kid to eat more vegetables? 10 tips and tricks to eating more vegetables!

Getting your child to eat more vegetables seems to be a common problem among many parents.  That is why Social Moms is teaming up with Sarah Matheny, author of “Peas and Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love,” to find out what are some mom's best tips and tricks to getting their kids to eating more vegetables!

My son eats a variety of fruits and vegetables. Here are my top 10 tips and tricks to getting your child to eat more vegetables.

1. Offer a variety of vegetables.  Just because you don't like something doesn't mean your child won't like it.  Don't limit the vegetables to just peas and carrots.  Offer broccoli, peppers, spinach, sweet potatoes, etc.

2. Continue to offer a vegetable even if it's been rejected.  Just because your child rejected a certain vegetable one night doesn't mean they'll reject it another night.  Some books suggest that a child has to try something up to 10 times before they acquire a taste for it.

3. Encourage your child to try at least one bite of everything on their plate.  My mom used this trick on me and my siblings growing up.  After having to eat asparagus a number of times growing up, I now like it.

4. Add sauces and dressings.  I used to not like lettuce until I found a dressing I liked.  At first I would put a lot of dressing on it, now I use very little salad dressing.  Also cheese sauce on vegetables such as broccoli and asparagus can make them more appealing to children and grown-ups.

5. Try everything you put in front of your child.  If you expect your child to eat tomatoes then you should try them too. 

6. Serve small courses.  Bring out small courses of food starting with the food your child is least likely going to like - even if it's just one or two bites.  When they are hungry they are more likely to eat foods they normally would refuse.  End with the foods you know they like.

7. Add vegetables to their favorite foods.  Add pureed pumpkin to the pancake mix.  Saute broccoli and put it in the macaroni and cheese.Add shredded zucchini and carrots to muffins.  There are many ways to add extra vegetables to foods they already like.

8. Give nicknames to their food.  Calling broccoli baby trees and cauliflower baby white trees can make the food seem more enticing.  

9. Puree soups.  If your child refuses certain vegetables, add it to a soup and blend it smooth.  Most kids like pureed soups.

10. Change up the way you prepare the vegetables.  Don't always prepare the vegetables the same way. Some kids like certain vegetables raw, while others like them cooked.  For example, my son doesn't like cooked carrots but he loves them raw.  Your child may prefer tomato sauce over raw tomatoes.  

The most important thing when trying to get your child to eat more vegetables is to not give up.  Take it one day and one meal at a time.  Continue to offer healthy choices and over time your child will eat more vegetables.  I would love to hear from you.  How do you get your child to eat more vegetables?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Peas and Thank You blogging program for a gift card worth $30. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Make your own fraction circles

He was super excited about these!

Is two too young to start learning fractions? I personally don't think so. =)  I'm always looking at ways to save on educational games and activities.  I bought some foam sheets for a craft I am planning on doing with the Moppets (preschoolers) in my MOPS (Mother's of Preschool) group.  I am in charge of Moppets this coming year and am planning on doing some cool things with that.  But until then I was thinking, what else could I do with them? Then it hit me, I could make some fractions!  My son loved them! He's only two so he doesn't necessarily get what a fraction is, but they were an instant hit and he loved putting the pieces together.  

Here's how to make fraction circles.  I took 4 colors (green, yellow, blue, and white) of foam sheets and drew a circle on each one.  I left one circle whole, cut one in two, another in three, and the last one in four.  I wrote on the circle pieces what they represent (1/1, 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4).  Then I explained it to my son and let him put the pieces and colors together.  I would say something like, "this is one-half of a circle.  If you have two halves and put them together that makes one circle."  He also counted the different color pieces and enjoyed playing with them.  There are a lot of ways you can use this inexpensive learning tool.  Eventually I'll make more fraction circles but I thought four was plenty to start out with.  If you have an older child they would get even more out of this activity.

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 7

Dinner - Rotini Alfredo with peas

We have completed Day 7!  For the first time in my life I have kept a food diary and have kept track of eating five colors of food a day for one week. I am pleased to announce that we did it! It takes some planning but I tried to keep the meals simple and allowed room for us to eat out occasionally.

Today was easy.  As you can see below we ate all of our colors by lunch time. When you can combine fruits and vegetables it makes things easier. If you read all of my posts you will notice that everyday we ate dried cranberries. At the moment, that is one of my son's favorite foods. That and almond milk. I hope I gave you a few suggestions for eating different fruits and vegetables in your daily diet.  

A really great book about eating five fruits and vegetables is called Gimme Five! by Nicola Graimes. I bought it at a bookstore in Ireland (it's British) and am not sure where you can buy one in Germany or the States. The book gives a lot of information on the nutritional needs of children, the nutrients found in the different fruits and vegetables, and has some great recipes. An example of something I didn't know - children need 3 fruits and 2 vegetables per day, while adults should eat 2 fruits and 3 vegetables. If you are unable to find Gimme Five! then you could try Five-a-Day Fruit and Vegetables Cookbook by Kate Whiteman or another book like it.

Day 7

Breakfast: cereal and blueberry, strawberry, and banana almond milk smoothie

Lunch: carrot sticks, chopped cucumbers, and cheese pizza 

Snack: goldfish crackers, dried cranberries, and yogurt

Dinner: Pasta with homemade Alfredo sauce, green peas, and baked cheese sticks

Blue/Purple: blueberries
Green: cucumbers, green peas
Red: cranberries, strawberries
Yellow: bananas
Orange: carrots

Read more:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 
Day 5 
Day 6

How to Create a Sensory Box

Green / Letter Gg Sensory Box

I have been wanting to create a sensory box for a while and finally did. A sensory box is a box or container filled with different objects, colors, scents, and textures. We have been having some crazy weather in Germany these past few weeks and have gotten more rain this summer than the past two. The parks near our house turn into mud pits because of all the sand. It can get easy to run out of things to do with a 2 year old so I decided to make a sensory box. Here is how to create a sensory box using dyed rice.

You can put anything you want as the base of a sensory box. I bought 10 lbs of rice and dyed 9 cups green - so between 4-5 lbs. You can also use pasta and dye it, water, or anything else that would be fun to play with. A few weeks ago we started doing the Hooked on Phonics for Preschoolers, which gives a good review of the alphabet and the phonic sounds.  My son has been obsessed with letters since around 17 or 18 months when he started noticing letters on signs when we went out. He still loves our letter games but I wanted to do something more with him. I did some research and decided to buy the Hooked on Phonics for Preschoolers. Although it's pretty basic, at least it has him attempting to write the letters (fine motor skills) and reinforces of the phonic sounds (which will help him learn to read). Since we were on the letter "G," I decided to dye the rice green the day before.  I filled the box with objects that started with "g" or were green.  My son had a blast digging through the rice and looking at all the objects.  One of his favorite books lately has been Goodnight Gorilla so I brought that out as well. 

The only downside of this activity is that rice will get everywhere, unless your child is older and/or understands better than mine.  I had to remind him several times to keep the rice in the container and on the blanket.  He wanted to put it rice everywhere!  Thankfully he did pretty well except when I left to get my camera upstairs, he put a few handfuls on our couch.  Besides having to stay near him while he played, this was a great activity for him. 

How To dye rice: Put dry rice in a large bowl, add about a teaspoon at a time of rubbing alcohol, and a few drops of food coloring, mix and adjust coloring as needed. Dry on wax paper for at least an hour before storing. I got this idea from Totally Tots. 

I had to make two batches for 9 cups

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 6

Lunch - salad with fish sticks

Today turned out good on our food challenge.  We ate lunch out again today. This time we went to one of our favorite places in our small town, a guest house. I ordered a salad. Salads are very popular in this part of Germany and usually include some kind of legumes or meat. While my husband did not order a salad for lunch, he did eat a few bites of mine giving him a small dose of the raw nutrients. My son tried a few bites of my food but only wanted fish sticks and some of his dad's fries. You can't win everyday.

Day 6

Breakfast: cereal and bananas

Snack: strawberry fruit stick

Lunch: Guest Haus Restaurant in town - salad with fish sticks

Snack: cheese, purple and green grapes, dried cranberries, cheerios

Dinner: 7 Bean soup - with split peas, purple, red, black, white beans, and tomatoes, homemade whole wheat corn bread, and rice

Blue/Purple: purple and black beans, purple grapes
Green: split peas, lettuce, cucumbers, green grapes,
Red: cranberries, tomatoes, strawberries, radishes
Yellow: bananas, white beans, corn
Orange: carrots

Read more:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 
Day 5