Carrie – Page 61 – The Creative Salad

Healthy and Delicious Kale Salad

The grown-ups in our house can’t get enough of this kale salad.

My little helper and I have been making a giant batch each week.

David and I gobble it up and feel incredible the next day. This salad is pure, raw brain food.

Now if only we could get our three-year old to try it.

It’s delicious. Really.

Here are some of the adjustments we make to the original recipe: we half the amount of lemon in the tahini-lemon dressing; omit the tomatoes and bell pepper (because of David’s nightshade allergies), add chickpeas, double the amount of kale, nuts and dried fruit in the salad.

We love the flexibility of the recipe. You really can add whatever veggies and nuts you have in your garden, fridge or cupboard. You can’t go wrong. It’s incredibly tasty and easy (although a bit time consuming) to make. Trust me, you’ll make this salad again and again.

Thanks to our friend Amber for originally introducing us to the recipe! We love it!

Colorful Scrabble Letter Magnets

Any time I see Scrabble at the thrift store, I scoop it up! We’re hoarding wooden scrabble letters over at our house! We play spelling games with them, use them as mini-blocks, and created these colorful alphabet magnets (inspired by this pin on Pinterest).

First we painted the Scrabble pieces using washable paint. After the letters dried for about ten minutes we added another layer of paint and then another, again. (Alternatively you could lightly sand the Scrabble pieces first and just do one layer of acrylic paint on them!)

Then we traced each letter several times with a silver Gel marker. I found that by applying very little pressure — barely touching the pen to the wood! — lets the pen ink flow and fill the indentation on each letter.

We added glitter (using Elmer’s Glitter Glue Pens) to some of the Scrabble pieces, before we Mod Podged them all to add a glossy sheen and to protect the paint from chipping.

We adhered some magnets to the back of the letters and voila!

Simple, colorful alphabet magnets made from re-purposed Scrabble letters!

Wondering about the other magnets? Read more about them here.

Can’t find Scrabble at your thrift store? You can buy it new here.

Tips For Traveling With Kids

Since our families live thousands of miles away, we have flown frequently over the past three years with our daughter and we have lots of tips to share with you.

We’ve found the secret to a happy trip is to bring:

1) many different snacks, such as granola bars, nut crackers, peanut butter squeeze packs, peanut butter pretzels, cheese sticks, juice boxes, applesauce, lara bars, granola, water bottles (to fill up after security), popcorn, dried fruit and nut mix,

2) new books (by beloved authors) to read for the first time,

3) our daughter’s lovies (baby doll and blanket), and

2) a multitude of simple toys and art projects, such as:

colored pencils, crayons or markers and coloring or activity books,
(above, a plain pad and pen work great in a pinch!)

beading projects (love these Melissa and Doug wooden bead sets),

sticker books (we’re partial to Usborne and Dover sticker books),

magnetic toys or games (such as Fractiles Magnetic Tiles or our favorite literary character magnets),

a Doodle Pro, known in our house as our daughter’s “computer” (her phrase, not mine!) that we keep in the car.

In the past we’ve also brought miniature animal figurines, wikki stix, Rand McNally’s Backseat Activity Books series, stamp sets and stamp pads, lacing cards (we love these), card games, books on cd (from our local library), and all sorts of little toys from the dollar bin at our local toy store.

If all else fails, and you’re exhausted and EVERYONE needs a break, whip out your iPod or phone loaded with free Sesame Street podcasts (with Kidz Gear headphones for kids).

We’ve only had to use this tactic a handful of times, but I felt so thankful to have a moment of quiet for the grown-ups to regroup and the 3 year old to have some down time.

In all honesty, I’ve been known to employ that last tactic at home occasionally at the end of a long day. (Though my daughter would rather watch cooking shows on You Tube than Sesame Street, but that’s another post…)

Berry Sauce

We’ve been waiting for this moment all summer: our blackberry bushes hang heavy with fruit!

We picked some blackberries and strawberries from our garden to make a simple, tasty berry sauce — a fruit puree, really — from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook.

We pureed the fruit along with several tablespoons of sugar (to taste) and a small squeeze of lemon juice.

After several pulses, we scrapped down the sides of the bowl, adjusted the sugar and pureed the sauce some more.

Then we passed the sauce through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and placed it in a clean mason jar.

The blackberry sauce keeps for a week in the fridge and tastes mighty good on cottage cheese apple pancakes or simply spread on a piece of toast.

I love this delicious sauce straight from our garden!

Bamboo Tray Score

This is not exactly a thrift store score, but it was such a great deal it might as well have been.

I found this bamboo tray at greendesign, an eco-goods store in Princeton, NJ while on vacation.

Marked down from $25 to $2 because of a slight crack in the grain (that’s barely visible on the wood-stained side), I love the size and shape. Also, I like that it’s constructed out of a renewable resource.

This multipurpose tray can be used for tea parties, picnics, and serving all sorts of tasty treats from the toddler’s play kitchen.

After all, if I expect my daughter to embrace the habit of sharing, I had better lead by example. That means I can’t keep it all to myself.

Bummer.

Interested in procuring a tray for yourself? Pick one up on sale at greendesign in Princeton, NJ or purchase one here at the Bambu website.