The Best! Chocolate Chip Muffins

We bake and cook a lot in our home, and try new recipes often. When trying new recipes, you take a chance, which means that some are only ever tried once! So, when I find a perfect recipe, I like to keep it and then develop new flavours out of the original.

This Chocolate Chip muffin recipe is perfection. I followed the ingredients to a T, and honestly, the consistency, the balance of salt and sweet, made these muffins delicious. I'll be trying this recipe with fruits and other fillings to see if it's texture holds up  with a more moist filling.

Ingredients:

• 2 & ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk (whole or buttermilk is preferred)*
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 & ½ cups chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F and spray a 12 cup muffin tray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla. Slowly add to the dry ingredients. Gently fold together until JUST combined.
4. Divide the batter into the 12** muffin cups and bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then turn the oven heat down to 375°F and bake for another 13-15 minutes. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes and enjoy warm.

*I used Buttermilk, which I believe was key in the consistency turning out so well, a slightly crunchy outside with a moist soft centre. 

**Also, I made smaller muffins and was able to get 24 out of this recipe. Just depends how full you fill each muffin compartment. 

Silicone Muffin Liners are great!

  

Mice? Nope, just my Sammy boy!

Original Recipe found at:

littlesweetbaker.com

Gung Hei Fat Choi!

This month, the theme for home-ec was Chinese New Year. We had fun learning about the traditions, making crafts and trying new recipes to commemorate the occasion. Check it all out below!

Crafts

We made the flag of China, easy and beautiful!

 Sahira, my 8 tear old made this by herself, with the exception of some help with the glue gun. She used a piece of felt and glued it to a cardboard backing for the flag, and then used foam star stickers for the design. She then wrapped some gold ribbon around a dowel and hot-glued it to the top of the flag, added some ribbons for hanging, and it was done!

Canvas

I found this cute little canvas and easel set at the dollar store! This is meant to be a gift for my sister, who is half Cantonese. The children have inherited my pride in that and always tell their friends that their Khala (Aunt) is half Asian! We chose the calligraphy to say year of the Ox, and year of the Horse, as my sister is an ox and her husband a horse. Lets hope the internet gave us an accurate translation! But if not, it looks pretty anyway.

Food

One of my favourite soups ever is, and always has been, Wonton soup; so of course that was what we made! I found the recipe on Pinterest, and it is a keeper. It tasted exactly like the soup I remember having as a child in one of the many Chinese restaurants my Mom took us to. 

Check out the recipe here: Chicken Wonton Soup

The kids were all excellent little wonton makers as well.

Here's how to wrap a wonton, demonstrated by Sultana.

We had Traditional Chinese Music playing while we prepared food. It was very relaxing! We were feeling very Zen, and there's a possibility that it made the food better too.

Listen Here: 2 hours of Traditional Chinese Tunes

Our Beautiful Wonton Soup

YUM YUM!

We also made Kung Pao Chicken, in the crockpot! It turned out delicious, but I forgot to take a picture before the family devoured it all! The recipe is in the pics below. ** Dont forget to use chopsticks for your Chinese meal!

  

Sayda, having a mini mandarin orange Jello Cup snack, while her sisters prepare the food.

Activites

Nanna and the kids spent time looking up everyone's Chinese animal sign. The kids enjoyed finding out what their sign was,their lucky number and colours were, and either agreeing or disagreeing with the description of their personalities.

Chinese Zodiac: Find your animal sign

You cant have Chinese New Year without little red envelopes! I put a toonie in each one.

My mom bought the kids a little Chinese New Year instrument set from our local Asian market. Samir loved the drum...

Shy Saydee Lady was on the Marakas....wait, Chinese Marakas...

and Sahira seemed pretty excited about her horn...

Gung Hei Fat Choi!

Geometry for little ones

My computer has died which means the blog has been silent. Hoping to fix this problem ASAP as I miss documenting the fun things we do! Typing on my IPhone is annoying :( 

Anyway,  here's a short little project to help kids learn their basic shapes. 

We made robots but ideas are endless- just cut out ( or let them cut out) various shapes and let them create!

I had the kids cut out their own shapes, good for practicing dexterity - and patience!

Then glue the shapes onto a blank page. 

Sahira personalized hers with a hockey stick and Sayda made a cute bow for her "girl robot".

Have fun :)

Crayon Tins

Today turned out to be a day full of refereeing! Some days are worse than others but I had had enough by the time we got to fighting over crayons. ( FYI, I do teach my children to share most of the time). 

Samir is very temperamental these days and just wasn't going to get the whole share your crayons thing- plus our homeschool teacher was expected to arrive within twenty minutes. This was not the time to have a life lesson on sharing crayons, especially with a nonsensical two year old capable of ear popping screams. 

Anyway sometimes good things come out of tough situations right? So is the story of Saydas new crayon tin. 

I had duct tape left over from our pouch craft, and an empty tea tin. 

No tutorial needed! The only advice I have is to make sure the lid doesn't have a layer of duct tape on the inside or it becomes hard to close ( as duct tape is thick). I folded the edges over into the inside of the lid and now Sayda can't close it herself. However it alsoeams Samir can't open it- which works for me. 

It's always great to re-use items that you've got hanging around the house, and to make them unique!

Plus- no more crayon fights, which should give them plenty of time to learn how to share a billion other things in life. {unless of course Samir decides that he wants the Frozen Tin- and believer that's a very real possibility #knockonwood}

Autumn Leaves {faux} Stained Glass

Autumn is my favourite season!

My most favourite part of fall is the leaves. The beauty in change, the metaphors found in the trees letting go of what sprung from their branches only seasons ago. Its just all around lovely. 

Throughout the years we have done different "leaf" crafts, but this years is my absolute fave! With many children, its nice to be able to do one big craft together as well, which we did for this one. 

How to make this beautiful Fall Craft:

Materials:

A bunch of different leaves

An Iron

A sheet to Iron on

Waxed paper

Old crayons in a few different colours

Scissors

A Grater

Procedure:

Step One: 

~ On a large work surface ( I used my kitchen Island), lay out the sheet first. I forgot to do this and then had to carefully slide the project on top for ironing afterwards!

~on top of the sheet, lay a piece of wax paper, wax side up!

Step Two:

~Arrange the leaves however you want. Cut any large, thick stems off first. Leave a bit of space in the middle so that you can seal it with the crayon wax later.

Step Three:

~Peel the paper off of the crayons.

~ Grate the crayons into one pile, mixing all the colours. {Adult job}

~Sprinkle these crayon bits all around the edge of the wax paper to create a frame, and also in the spaces between the leaves where you can.

Step Four:

~Lay an equally sized piece of waxed paper, this time wax down! on top. *** It's important that two waxed surfaces are facing each other as they will melt together, sealing the project.

~ Now your going to iron the top at about medium heat, slowly. be careful of the edges as sometimes the crayon bits escape and ironing straight onto them could ruin your iron! The longer you hold the iron over certain areas the more liquid the crayons inside become, and the more thei colours mix- creating black. The point is to melt them just enough so they stick! Slowly but surely! {Adult job} 

Step Five:

~take your scissors and trim the edges straight.

~I used transparent tape to adhere it to my window. Pick a window that get sun exposure!

Picture Tutorial:

 {Materials}

{Arrange leaves}

{Peel Crayons}

{Grate Crayons}

{Sprinkle Crayons}

{Wax paper on top}

{Gently Iron}

{Cut Edges Straight}

{Display!}

 Now I've just got to pray for a little west coast sunshine to beam through that window!

 

Tea Time

A tea party is a very "educational" thing you see. One of the best things I've learned as

a homeschool mom, is that it's the everyday moments, the little things- where you 

find some of the most important growth. Curriculum is there to give me a guide line- 

but, Life, is there to learn from. Plus, all good conversations happen over tea ♥️☕️

Duct Tape Craft

I never knew what those huge bins of beautiful Duct Tape sold at Walmart were for. I have since learned that Duct Tape has become it's own category in the craft world! From flowers to purses, you can make just about anything- one girl even made her prom dress AND her dates suit out of the stuff!

Because we must cover Art in our homeschool curriculum, I am always looking for new mediums to work with and different project ideas that will keep the kids interested. You can only paint and colour so much!

This craft does require Adult Supervision and honestly it's probably not for 10 years and under. My mom ended up doing most of the work for the little ones! However, the kids still learned a few skills to do with measuring and X-Acto knife safety! Thumbs Up!

Duct Tape Pouches

{Click to Watch!}

What you'll need:

Cutting board

Ruler

X-Acto knife

Plastic bag

Duct Tape

Procedure:

1. Using the cutting board, X-Acto Knife and ruler, measure the plastic bag and cut into a rectangular shape. Once you cut it you will end up with two pieces, use one per pouch.

2. Start lining the Duct tape across one side of the plastic bag. You can go horizontal or vertical, depending on the design on the tape. make sure to overlap each strip slightly.

3. Flip the piece over and repeat the Duct Tape strips on the other side.

4. Now you want to measure the ends of each side of the rectangle, use your ruler and knife to give them a cut so that all of the edges are straight.

5. Fold the piece in half lengthwise.

6. To finish the top of the pouch, cut a strip of Duct Tape in half lengthwise and apply on each side of the top of the bag.

7. Similarly, cut a piece of tape lengthwise and use it to stick the two opening sides together.

Clean up any tape that hangs off the edges with the x-acto knife

You will now have a flat pouch

8. Now you need to push each corner of the bag into the center, creating a flat bottom.

9. Cut another piece of Tape lengthwise and adhere it to the insides of the pouch.

10.  Take a rectangular piece of tape and cut it into four equal portions. (cut horizontally and then vertically) Use the pieces to tape the inside corners down to the bottom of the bag.

11. Shape the bag by folding the sides inwards and flattening the bottom. you can add a slit in the middle of the bag and thread some ribbon for a finishing touch. 

These are super cute to use as Make-Up bags

Or you could make one and use it as a gift bag. Two gifts in one!

The ideas are endless, but my favourite part is that they are homemade and useful.