Mango and Strawberry Fruit Leathers
| May 15, 2013 | Posted by Koalaborg under Food, Real Food, Sustainable Living, Vegan |
I recently took advantage of a couple bulk organic produce buys and ended up with 16 good sized mangos and 16 pounds of strawberries. In truth, we had a total of 32 pounds of strawberries but the first two flats were devoured by the kids.
Anyway, while most of the strawberries will be going into jam, I did want to use some for fruit leathers. My plans for the mangos were to make fruit leathers for the kids, and I thought to mix in the remaining strawberries to clear out the fridge of the rest of the bulk produce.
I sliced up 12 mangos, avoiding the fibrous material closest to the pit. I squeezed as much pulp out as possible. I put into a saucepan with approximatley 3 cups of sliced strawberries, and heated on medium for just a few minutes, until the strawberries softened up a bit and released their juice. I then pureed in the food processor in batches. I poured onto the fruit leather trays for my Nesco dehydrator. I actually did not have enough leather trays so I spread wax paper over three of my regular dehydrator trays.
I set up at 135F overnight and into the next day. I did have a little trouble getting the leathers to release from the wax paper (I should have lightly oiled the paper first!) but I brushed a little water on to get the paper to release, put back on the dehydrator trays for an additional hour and then they were ready to go into a bag.
These are a great snack!
Old Faithful
| May 12, 2013 | Home Life, Home Organization |
Our autodrip coffee maker recently crapped out on us. We have very hard water around here and even with regular maintainance cleaning with vinegar (okay maybe not that regular…) we ended up with a very clogged machine that we could not salvage. We even tried resurrecting our older autodrip machine we had kept for “parts”… more
Critical Thinking for Kids
| May 10, 2013 | Curriculum, First Grade, Homeschool |
I think Critical Thinking is a skill that needs to be fostered as we develop. Too often in our attempt to make life easy for our children, we take away opportunities for them to problem solve and strengthen their critical thinking skills. Our schools unfortunately do much of the same – teaching kids what they need… more
Cheezy Crackers
| May 5, 2013 | Food, Vegan |
We recently made these crackers from Chef Chloe’s website – Vegan Goldfish Crackers. Oh my goodness, these suckers are so addictive! The recipe is so simple and once the dough is mixed up, they only take 12-15 minutes to bake. We don’t have a goldfish cookie cutter, so I have been using my pizza roller.… more
Review: Reading Rainbow App for iPad
| May 1, 2013 | Books, Homeschool |
We love using our iPad in our schooling. I am always looking out for education apps that Kyri will enjoy. A friend recently suggested Reading Rainbow for the iPad. I grew up with Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow, and I have always loved the way the show brought stories to life. The Reading Rainbow app… more
Barter and Swap
| April 29, 2013 | Real Food, Sustainability, Sustainable Living |
As we work to simplify our lives and be more sustainable, we have made the effort to make much of our food from scratch. We are connected to a community of like-minded folks in the area who are also walking a similar path. This weekend we participated in a Barter and Swap meet. Several of us… more
Explore:The Wolf Wore Shoes
| April 24, 2013 | Field Trips, First Grade, Homeschool, Portfolio |
We had another fun visit to Friedrich Wilderness Park for the Explore class this week. This month’s topic was “The Wolf Wore Shoes” – this was an exploration of animals in children’s literature. The kids explored several book selections and discussed whether the animals in the books were 1) real animals doing real things, 2)… more
Learning About Mammals
| April 22, 2013 | Field Trips, First Grade, Homeschool, Portfolio |
Our co-op had our second zoo field trip this week. Last month we went at the end of our Bird unit. This trip we focused on mammals, and we kept track of all the animals that we saw. As we observed the different animals and their names were recorded, we discussed if their names came from… more
Why Homeschool?
| April 19, 2013 | General Information, Homeschool |
I post a lot about homeschooling, because it is a large part of who we are as a family. But I got a comment earlier this week on Twitter that made me realize that I have never put into words all the reasons we chose to homeschool. I hope that by stating the reasons why… more
More Butterflies!
| April 17, 2013 | First Grade, Homeschool, Portfolio |
This week we finished up the Butterfly lesson we started several weeks ago when we all got our caterpillars in the mail. Most of the lesson happened at home, as we watched our caterpillars grow larger, form their crysalis and eventually emerge as butterflies. The kids loved watching them in our habitat. It was so… more
Siblings
| April 16, 2013 | Home Life, Raising Children |
I saw a lot of sibling pictures floating around Facebook last week for Sibling Day. It made me reflect on the sibling relationship forming between Kyri and Ender. Kyri is such a good big sister! She mothers Ender – feeding him, helping him get dressed, being attentive to his needs. She is his playmate –… more
Recent Comments