If your kids love pasta but you want to change up your dinnertime routine, try out this easy Baked Ziti. Make it ahead of time and bake it when needed. From the refrigerator, the dish usually needs an additional 15 minutes of cooking time.
Ingredients for Easy Baked Ziti:
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 finely chopped onion
1 lb ground beef
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
8 slices of provolone cheese
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Method:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for about 8-9 minutes; drain.
2. In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, heat through, then remove from heat.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking oil spray.
4. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, 1/2 of the sauce, Provolone cheese, sour cream, remaining ziti, remaining sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cheeses are melted. Cover with foil for the first 15-20 minutes of baking, then remove the foil so the cheese will melt and the top will brown.
Editor’s note: This story is aimed to lower the chemicals you use in everyday life, such as silver polish, laundry softener, etc. but please follow the CDC guidelines for keeping your home and surfaces disinfected and clean to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Everyone loves a clean house, but you don’t always have to use products packed with chemicals to get things to sparkle and . From natural ways to soften your laundry to using lemons to shine your chrome, read on for 12 ways to clean without the chemicals.
1. Use lemon juice to polish all that chrome and stainless steel in your kitchen or bathroom. We like to keep an extra bottle of already juiced lemon on hand for just such a reason, but if you’ve made lemonade and have lemon rinds left, you can actually use the lemon half right on corners.
2. You can also use said lemon rind, juice or a wedge to clean a cutting board. The lemon not only disinfects, it removes trace odors left behind from things like onions and garlic.
Vinegar (White)
3. Mix vinegar to water at a 3 to 1 ration (3 cups vinegar to one cup water) for cleaning windows and mirrors.
4. Use straight vinegar in a spray bottle to combat mildew. Spray offending area and leave for 30 minutes before rinsing with hot water.
5. Next time you’re at the grocery store, grab an extra one-gallon jug of white vinegar for your laundry room. Add a good 20 drops of essential oil, shake, and keep on hand for a fabric softener. Just add a half cup to each load (shake the jug to distribute the oils before each use).
6. Almost every hard-surface floor, from vinyl to hardwood, can be effectively cleaned with a simple water and vinegar solution. One cup vinegar to a half-gallon of hot or warm water should do the trick.
7. Use baking soda with a hint of essential oil, like lavender, sprinkled in to deodorize your carpets. Sprinkle, vacuum up, inhale.
8. DIY your own room freshener without all the toxic chemicals. Just put some baking soda in a cute jar, add a few drops of your favorite essential oil (we love the combo of mint + lavender) put the lid on, and shake. Once you’ve got your baking soda + essential oils distributed, remove the lid and place several holes in it to let the freshening begin!
9. Use a teaspoon of salt to tepid water (not hot or even warm) to clean and disinfect water bottles (and sippy cups). This keeps you from that dreaded soapy water taste and neutralizes any lingering odors in your bottle. You can even soak the lids and sippy attachments in a mild salt solution, just be sure to rinse the heck out of it to flush the salty flavor away. A cotton swab with a salty paste can help get in the nooks and crannies of lids, too.
Oil
10. Cast iron skillet hack: If you properly season your pans, you won’t need to scrub too much but sometimes it happens. (Never, ever use soap and water on a cast iron skillet!) If you have a tricky sticky spot, use coarse salt and a vegetable scrubber dedicated to this purpose with a helping of cooking oil to clean off the gunk. While we recommend seasoning your pans after each use with a helping of cooking oil, try this lazy hack for every once in awhile: wipe your pan clean with a dry cloth and then spray with a cooking spray like Pam before storing.
11. Mix vinegar and oil together to make a furniture polish! Do it a 3 to 1 ration (so 3 tablespoons oil to 1 tablespoon vinegar). Or sub lemon juice for the vinegar. We recommend making this one in small batches (a little goes a long way) and applying with a super soft cloth, not a paper towel.
12. Toothpaste cleans stains and tarnish on any silver surface. If you’ve got a detailed edge on an antique plate, a gentle toothbrush + toothpaste can take the tarnish out of the nook and crannies and is way less harsh than some commercial silver polishes out there (which can actually strip silver plating). Ditto this method for jewelry.
Right about now I start diving in deep on holiday planning. I love to cook all day and while the kids love to help too, I always try to plan ahead and set out a few fun activities for them to do while they’re waiting for the holiday meal. Our gingerbread playdough recipe will make your entire house smell delicious! The kids loved decorating the “cookies” and they got to get in on the holiday cooking without leaving me with an entire plate of cookies to eat. An all around win.
Ingredients:
4 cups flour
4 cups water
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons cooking oil
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground cloves – a drop of brown food coloring
Optional accessories:
gingerbread people cookie cutters
rolling pin
decorative bits such as buttons, googley eyes, sequins, gems, etc.
Directions:
Combine ingredients through food coloring and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until most of the moisture is absorbed (it should take about 5-7 minutes). Let it cool on some wax paper. Have the kids roll the dough and cut out gingerbread people to decorate!
Rebecca Green is an author, freelance writer, blogger, and recovering lawyer. Her first book, "Banish Boredom: Activities to Do with Kids That You'll Actually Enjoy," was published in July 2016. Rebecca writes freelance and blogs creative family activities, healthy lifestyle topics, and on the general tomfoolery of raising children.
Stuck at home on a rainy day with our play date canceled, we decided to occupy ourselves by making some dumplings (or little parcels of love as I like to call them). It seems like a daunting task to take on but these dumplings are low on ingredients, high on child involvement and disappear ridiculously fast. The sweet, salty dipping sauce is a perfect complement except my genius daughter decided to eat hers with ketchup. “Do you have to eat them with ketchup?” “Yes. It’s good for me.” Okay then. I tried half a dumpling with the daughter’s choice condiment and it wasn’t bad!! She may be on to something. As a child, I too was a ketchup fiend. So much so, I used to say that when I grow up, I would marry a guy who owned a ketchup factory. Sometimes the best laid plans go awry. I have graduated to Sriracha – maybe one day Ria will too.
Easy-peasy Dumplings
Make these super easy dumplings with your little ones or for a kitchen play date instead of the usual cookies or cupcakes. Have the kids help with beating the egg, brushing the egg wash to help seal the dumplings and even folding the dumplings into little triangles.
Makes 15-18 – you decide how many that serves
Ingredients
For dumplings: ½ lb ground pork, chicken or turkey
2 scallions finely sliced
1½ tsp soy sauce
¼ tsp white pepper
½ tsp sesame oil (optional)
1 egg beaten
store bought square wonton wrappers (usually available next to tofu in most grocery stores)
For dipping sauce: 2 tsp soy sauce
¼ tsp sugar
½ tsp rice wine vinegar (optional)
Method
1. Mix the minced meat with the scallions, soy sauce, white pepper, sesame oil and half of the beaten egg. Reserve the rest of the egg for sealing the dumplings
2. Combine the ingredients for the dipping sauce
3. Arrange several wonton wrappers with corners facing you and place ½ a tablespoon worth of meat mixture in the center of each wrapper. Use a pastry brush or your fingers to brush the edges with the beaten egg. Fold the wrapper in half and form little triangular parcels. Repeat till meat mixture is used up.
4. Steam for 5-6 minutes (do not forget to grease the steamer basket with cooking oil if using a metal steamer). Alternatively, you can cook the dumplings in boiling water which is easier and takes about 3 minutes.
5. For pot stickers, if you want more calories and crunch, pan fry the cooked dumplings in a little oil, 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve warm with dipping sauce and watch them disappear
This is a guest post from our friend Simran at a Little Yumminess. Visit their blog for more fab, kid-friendly recipes.
