Recipe: Crockpot Cowboy Casserole

A friend of mine knows how much I love new recipes that are easy, crockpot, or freezer friendly!  She shared this recipe with me and right away I added it to the meal plan.

It is super easy and the perfect time for us to turn on the crock pot before leaving in the morning on Sunday and having it ready when we arrive home from church.  And to make it even better--I add in a crock pot liner so clean up is super easy!

This is not technically a freezer meal, but I have in fact assembled as a freezer meal (yes, potatoes and all!) and it turned out great.  It was more watery when made as a freezer meal than fresh on the morning of cooking, but still had great taste.

I recommend this one and hope you like it too!

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 can corn, drained
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 lb red potatoes (about 3-4), sliced thin
1 can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
onion, optional

Directions:
1. Brown meat and drain
2. slice potatoes 
3. add all ingredients to slow cooker
4. cook HIGH 4 hours or LOW 7-8


To freeze: combine all in ziplock freezer bag, label and freeze. 
To cook, thaw and place in sprayed slow cooker.

Top with cheese, then recover until melted.  We like to eat it with tortilla chips or fritos.
 

Recipe:Hawaiian Chicken (Freezer to Crockpot)

Tried a new recipe this week that I found at New Leaf Wellness for Hawaiian Chicken.  It is very healthy and very very easy.  It's great to have in the rotation for a variety and great for the budget because pineapple is often on sale for 99 cents.

Only thing about this was that the chicken was dry, but I think that was probably user error and either it was over cooked or was slightly freezer burned (only because I had used frozen chicken that was all alone in a bag in the freezer.  I was excited to make this and had pineapple so I didn't want to wait until I had fresh chicken).

But, with that said, I'm still recommending it.  Because we did like it a lot.  I just cut up the chicken real small and added a little more soy sauce on my plate and ate it along with the pineapple and it was fine. 

I have another pineapple on my counter right now and plan to make this as a freezer meal again with fresh chicken and see how it goes.  I'll try to remember to update! 

 

 

 

Ingredients:
1lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into pieces
1 fresh pineapple, but into pieces (or two cans, drained)
2 T brown sugar
2 T soy sauce



Directions:
1. cut chicken and pineapple
2. add all ingredients to a ziplock bag
3. label and freeze



To cook:
thaw overnight in fridge and cook in slow cooker low 3-6 hours

Serve over rice

 

Recipe: One Pan Chicken Dinner (gluten free)

As much as I love my crock pot, I love one dish dinners.  This is an EASY and yummy dinner! Everyone else has probably been making this for years, but I just tried it for the first time.  I'm a fan because of the ease and it was tasty too.  We don't intentionally eat gluten free here, but it's great to have a good recipe to make for others that do.

 

Ingredients:

Seasonings (onion soup mix is what I used this time.  Next time I will try something different)

1/2 cup butter (I did not use this much!)

chicken breasts (I used two full breasts)

1 bag frozen vegetables

potatoes (I used red potatoes)

Directions:
1. Quarter potatoes
2. Cube chicken
3. Dump frozen vegetables in pan
4. Separate the vegetables, meat, and potatoes into three sections (they can touch though.  Honestly they could probably be mixed up in the pan, but I liked this arrangement)
5. Slice butter overtop entire dish
6. Sprinkle seasoning over entire dish

7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 1-1.5 hours

*at the 1 hour some of the potatoes were slightly hard and a couple pieces of chicken weren't fully cooked.  I had the dish in the oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  I think part of the problem was the pan I used.  The butter was caught in the rivets in the bottom which slowed the cooking on the top pieces a little.
*I wasn't a big fan of the onion soup mix.  I think next time I will just use some seasonings from the cupboard.

Recipe: Crock Pot Enchiladas

You know how I love my crock pot.  I tried a new recipe this week and we all enjoyed it.  I found this twist on enchiladas to be made in a slow cooker.  It was easy and tasty.  Not so much pretty.  It tasted much better than it looked:)

 

Ingredients:

1 pound meat (I used pre seasoned pork and actually only used 1/2 a pound)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn (or frozen corn would be fine)

1 cup salsa

1 can green chiles

taco seasoning

10 oz enchilada sauce

9 inch flour tortillas (4-5)

2 cups cheese

 

 

 

Directions:

1. brown meat (with taco seasoning if needed)

2. add in corn, salsa, beans, chiles, and half the enchilada sauce

3. spray crock pot--spray it up high enough! I didn't!!

**also, I used my circle crock pot.  If you only have a large oval one, I think you could just put two tortillas down side by side and follow same steps.

 

4. Place tortilla in bottom of crock pot.  Mine folded up a little bit, but that is just fine.

5. Pour 1/3 of meat mixture on tortilla and top with some cheese

6. Repeat the tortilla, meat, cheese process until meat mixture is gone. 

 

7. Pour remaining enchilada sauce on top and top with cheese.

 

8. Cover and cook on low 3-4 hours or high 2-3 hours.

 

I cooked on high for almost 3 hours.  This is served much different than traditional enchiladas, but it tastes just as good.  I just scooped out with a spoon and we cut up and ate.  I will make this again!

Crock Pot Recipe: Chicken Parmesan

I have seen this recipe in the past was always skeptical of it so I never made it.  Now I don't think I will ever go back to the oven recipe!  This slow cooker recipe is so easy and just as tasty!! I used a combination of a couple recipes and tweaked it as I wanted.

 

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast

onion

Italian seasonings of your choice

32 oz spaghetti sauce

Parmesan cheese

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

olive oil (optional)

bread crumbs (optional)

 

Directions:

1. This is an optional step--coat chicken breast with bread crumbs and heat oil in pan.  Pan fry both sides of chicken. (some recipes do not call for this step.  Others call for coating but not the pan frying.  Do what is easiest and most pleasing to your taste buds)

 

2. spray slow cooker and add onion on bottom, then pour in spaghetti sauce. 

 

3. Press chicken into spaghetti sauce and top with seasonings and parmesan cheese (shredded or grated)

 

 

4. Cook on low 4-6 hours

 

5. Once chicken is cooked, top with mozzarella cheese and place slow cooker lid back on. Let cheese melt.

 

6. Cook noodles of your choice while cheese is melting

 

Serve chicken over noodles with sauce and enjoy.  This was a hit for the whole family!!

Freezer Cooking: Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

I've been making these for a couple years now.  They are easy, yummy, and convenient. 

 

It's nice to have something in the freezer to pull out and eat for lunch rather than snacking on chocolate all day as I sometimes like to do:)  And now with more mouths to feed and those bellies eating more, there isn't always left overs for Daddy to take to work.

 

Ingredients: (alter as desired)

Tortilla shells

Shredded chicken

black beans

corn

cooked Spanish rice (I make brown rice and add in spices)

onion

cheese

cilantro

olive oil/butter/cooking spray

 

 

1. Cook and shred chicken

2. Cook rice

3. Mix all ingredients together (except cheese)

4. Top each tortilla shell with a spoonful of mixture

5. Top with cheese

6. Heat oil in skillet

7. Wrap burritos and brown each side in the skillet. 

*I put the open part down in the pan first to seal shut.  While that side is in pan (only about 30 seconds) I spray the top side with cooking spray and then flip to brown both sides.

If you are planning to keep them in the freezer for a while, or want them easy and ready to go for on-the-go lunches, I wrap in aluminum foil.  This last batch  made is the first time I haven't wrapped them in foil because next week Brent starts working from home five days a week! I'm hoping they come out of the ziplock bag ok and aren't all stuck together.

To cook, you can put in microwave or oven at 325 degrees for 25 minutes (from frozen) then add salsa and sour cream.  Without added salsa, I think they are a bit dry.

Recipe: Mexican Mac n Cheese

No pictures, but I wanted to share a recipe! It's not a crockpot or freezer meal, but it IS a one pot dish which I also love.

It came from a website that had a great tutorial and directions.  I followed them almost exact--I did not add the jalepeno and used a variety of the cheeses I had on hand.

The Mexican Macaroni and Cheese is a great meatless dish that was a hit for the whole family.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Homemade Wipes {update}

I posted this recipe for homemade baby wipes in September.  Has anyone made them? 

I have! And I love them! I have improvements and wanted to update to let you know what I thought of them after using them.

I made my first batch in the middle of September.    And I just made made my fourth roll today. 

Updates and thoughts:

Cost--I bought a 6 pack of Viva paper towels for $5.  I already have coconut oil and baby wash on hand. In about two months I have used three paper towel rolls--equal to $2.50, so I think it is proving to be cheap!

Size--In the original post I cut I to thirds because I wanted them to fit into the case. However, they were just too skinny. So, the next time I made them I cut in half and I have been so happy with them that way.  I had to smoosh it down into the wipes case, but it fits.  

With only cutting in half they are SO much better.  More like a 'real' wipe you would purchase at a store.

Storage--I have used Huggies and Pampers wipes cases and both work great.  I do prefer the huggies because it has the little seal over the opening to just have one wipe come up at a time.  When cutting in half, you really do have to smoosh it down a lot, but it has worked just fine. Once the lid is shut you don't even notice.  And they still wipe up a dirty bottom just fine.

After soaking and prepping the towel--you can see it is higher than the top of the container:

  

And this is after smooshing it down:

 

Conclusion--I am planning to continue making these.  We are happy with them and they are so easy to whip up really quick if we run out of wipes.  No need to run to the store to purchase them.

They also fold up well for the travel cases.

I have three in diapers and also a preschooler who likes to use the wipes to "clean" the house, so these are a great option for us!

If you give them a try, let me know how you like them! :)

Crock Pot Potato Soup

Potatoes seem to be on sale every week now.  I have only made potato soup one other time and I remember it was very time consuming.  That was also several years ago, before pinterest:) 

 So this time around I searched for an easy crock pot recipe for potato soup.

I found THIS recipe from Meal Planning Mommies and it was so yummy!  It was so easy.

I liked that I didn't have to use my beaters; I just used my potato masher. Fried a little bacon for a topping and served with a salad. 

It was delicious and that evening, a couple hours after dinner, my oldest says to me "Thank you for the soup and bacon tonight mommy. Can we eat that again?"  With a comment like that, you bet we will!! :)

Recipe: One Pot Red Beans and Rice

Today I had to scramble to figure out dinner because when I opened up the package of my whole chicken, it stunk like rotten eggs :(  I'm not certain why because when I buy whole chickens they always go directly to the freezer and it was in the fridge to thaw only just over 24 hours, so it couldn't have been spoiled from that short time.  But I didn't want to chance it so we threw it away:(

 

I had some sausage in the freezer and within a couple hours of being out it was thawed so I could use it for dinner.  These ingredients are something I often just have in the pantry, so it's a perfect go-to meal. 

 

I got the recipe from E-meals.com when I was a member in 2011.  It was one that I have kept and keep using.  It was always my one sausage recipe I used until I discovered this one pot cheesy sausage pasta recipe. 

 

 

It's easy.  It's one pot.  It's freezable.  It's yummy. It's a kid pleaser.  It's a winner in this house!

 

 

Ingredients:

-Smoked Sausage (turkey, beef, etc.)

-15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

-15 oz can diced tomatoes and green chilies, undrained (I use a can of diced tomatoes and eye ball what I want of the green chili verde salsa)

-1 t chili powder

-1 cup water

1 cup instant rice, uncooked

 

 

 

Directions:

 

1. Cut sausage and sautee until browned.  This time I added some onion and celery in it!

2. Add all other ingredients EXCEPT rice. 

3. Bring to a boil.

4. Add rice.

 

5. Cover, reduce heat and simmer about 10 min or until water is absorbed

6. Serve and enjoy! We serve with biscuits.  You could add more beans to make it go farther...as we had NO leftovers from this the last time we made it....that tells you how much we like it:)

Recipe: Salsa Chicken Casserole

Winner, Winner! Salsa Chicken for Dinner!

This was so yummy! I was a little nervous after reading very conflicting reviews in the comments section on the original blog with the recipe. 

It is a one pot dump and bake meal so it's a very easy clean up! I prepped it on Friday and didn't cook it until Saturday.  Turned out perfect.

Salsa Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:
-1 cup rice (I used brown minute rice)
-1 cup frozen corn, thawed 
-1 can black beans, drained
-16 oz salsa
-1 cup chicken broth or water (I used water)
-1/2 T chili powder
-1/2 t oregano
-2 large chicken breast, 1.5 pounds
-1.5 cups cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Drain beans and thaw corn
3. Add rice, beans, corn, salsa, broth, and seasonings into an 8x8 casserole. (I used a stoneware dish probably about 9x7 and it worked fine)

4. Cut breasts into 3 pieces each
5. Push down into rice mixture as far as they will go. (mine were completely covered by the mix)

6. Cover tight with foil, bake 1 hour
7.  Test rice and chicken.  If it is ready, sprinkle cheese over top and return uncovered for a few minutes until cheese is melted.  If not, then return until rice and chicken are ready then add cheese.

It was so yummy! Didn't even need to add sour cream.  Chicken was moist and the dish was so tasty.  A winner that will be added into our rotation!  This could easily be made ahead to be a freezer meal, but I would wait to add the water until ready to cook.
 

Recipe: Marinara Chicken and Vegetables

I've had this recipe for a while but am just now making it.  It is a freezer to crockpot meal (the BEST kind of recipe!)


I didn't make it from the freezer, but next time I buy chicken I do plan to make a couple of these ahead of time and freeze.  It was SO tasty! And not what we expected.  Even though it calls for spaghetti sauce, it didn't taste like spaghetti.

This recipe got 12 thumbs up! (yes, twelve now....Colt enjoyed it, too!)

Recipe is for Marinara Chicken and Vegetables

Ingredients:
-3-4 boneless chicken breasts (I used two large)
-4 cloves garlic
-1 can diced tomatoes and chilies (I used 1 can diced tomatoes + a few ounces of verde salsa)
-4 ribs celery, chopped
-2 cups (2 small) zucchini, chopped (our meals got switched around last week and I used the zucchini on another dish! So I didn't have this, but it was just as good! I will add it next time)
-1 green pepper, chopped
-2.5 cups spaghetti sauce (I just used one jar)
-1 t basil
-bow tie noodles (I used one whole box + a little extra from another box)
-(I also added salt and pepper)

 

Directions:

1. Chop Vegetables.

2. Place all ingredients into slow cooker and cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 4 hours.

3. Cook noodles about 10 minutes before dinner.

4. Remove chicken and shred then put back in crock pot.

5. Mix cooked noodles into crock pot

6. Top with cheese and serve

**We paired ours with my new favorite recipe--easy garlic knots--and the kids love rolling them out and twisting them!

 

TO FREEZE:

 Chop all vegetables and add all ingredients EXCEPT noodles to a zip lock bag.  Label and freeze.  Thaw enough to get into the slow cooker and cook as directed.

As you can see, it was a hit!

Made: Homemade Baby Wipes

Why am I just doing this after my fourth child?!  Oh, probably because it's now that I have four children that I realize how fast we go through wipes and how that extra money we will save can go toward diapers! (nope...no plans of cloth diapering here!!)

 

A friend made her own baby wipes and gave me a few to try.  I loved them! Super moist and worked just fine.  So I gave it a try. 

 

I am making my own wipes completely for the savings in money. 

Don't judge me, but the contents of what is in the wipes wasn't what drove me to do this.  So I didn't need to use this recipe. 

 

I used a combination of this recipe and this recipe, which I found by just doing a quick search online.

 

One problem I was seeing was everyone uses plastic containers for the wipes.  I wanted to use an old wipes container.  Cutting the paper towel roll in half like the recipes suggest wouldn't fit in the container. But then I saw Kitchen Stewardship said if you cut the roll into 1/3s it will fit in the old wipes case.  So that is what I tried.

 

Here is how I made them with my own ingredients and instructions:

 

Ingredients:

-container (I used an old pampers wipe container)

-1 roll paper towel (MUST be high quality.  Most suggested Bounty. I used Viva-I got 6 rolls/$5 on a sale)

-2 Tablespoons baby wash (I used Up and Up (Target Brand)--we just refill this pump bottle with whatever we buy)

-2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

-1 cup water

-a splash of vinegar (supposed to help prevent mold, which I won't need next time because we went through them fast enough. I wasn't sure, so I figured I'd add it this time)

 

 

Directions:

1. Cut paper towel into 1/3s. The first cut I used the knife on the right.  The second cut I used an electric knife.  Both took muscle.  My arm was less tired after the electric knife.

 

2. Boil water

3. Add oil and baby wash

4. Place paper towel roll in container and pour water mixture over top. 

 

 

 

5. Flip container upside down for 5 minutes

6. Remove cardboard center.  Mine came out so easy.

 

7. Transfer to whatever container you will use.

8. Pull the end that is in the center of the roll straight up.

We have had these almost a week now.  We are happy with them.  Cutting into 1/3s makes them small, so I have to use more than I would if the roll was halved.  But even using more, it is still going to be cheaper than buying wipes.  I didn't know it was so easy and could use what I already had on hand.  I just made one roll up and put the other two that I cut into a plastic bag.  I plan to make a mixture to pour over those tomorrow.  I wanted to do one trial run before making several at a time. 

Do not make these far in advance because they will mold or dry out.  But the nice thing is, it doesn't take long at all to make a mixture up! And I always have baby wash on hand.  Some posts used baby oil, but I thought the coconut oil would have added benefits. Plus it just sits in my cupboard so at least now it has a good use:)

If you give it a try, please let me know if you like them!!  I'm planning to make some more and will accordion fold them into a travel case for the diaper bag.

Recipe: Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake

I'm on a new recipe kick.  So if they are cheap, easy, and kid-tested, taste-bud approved, I will send them your way.

 

I bought a bunch of spinach to make Chicken Parmesan Roll-Ups (recipe to come! It's one of my favorites!) and I still had a lot of spinach left over.

 

I saved the left over spinach and used half on our pizza (with alfredo sauce, chicken, and bacon--yum!) and the other half I used to make a new recipe. 

 

Searched on pinterest for a spinach recipe and this one looked good to me.  It was easy and a nice one dish casserole.  It was a winner for us!

 

 

Chicken Spinach Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

-8 oz uncooked rigatoni (I used bowtie)

-1 T olive oil

-1 c chopped onion

-1 (10 oz) pack frozen spinach, thawed (I used fresh and just chopped with kitchen scissors)

-3 c cubed, cooked chicken breasts

-1 (14 oz) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained (I used plain style and just added in a bunch of Italian seasonings)

-1 (8 oz) container chive & onion cream cheese (I used plain.  I'm sure it would have tasted even better and much more flavorful with the chive and onion, but I was just trying to save $)

-½ t salt, ½ t pepper

-1½ c shredded mozzarella cheese

 

 

Directions:

1. Sautee onion with oil in frying pan. 

2. Boil noodles

3. Mix everything together, but save the mozzarella for the top.

4. Spread evenly in a 9x13 and sprinkle mozzarella on top.

 

5. Bake COVERED at 375 for 30 minutes

6. Bake UNCOVERED at 375 for 15 minutes

 

I followed the directions exact other than the onions--original recipe tells you to bake in oven.  I sautéed mine because I didn't want the oven on to heat the house.  It was yummy and a great way to use spinach up!

Next time cream cheese is on sale I will try to grab some chive and onion to see if that makes a difference in the flavor.

Recipe: One Pot Cheesy Sausage Pasta

Smoked sausage was on sale last week and I had a buy one get one free coupon (YIPPIE!) so that was on the menu for this week.
 Lately, though, I have been tired of making the same rotations over again so I set out to pinterest for a new sausage recipe.  Usually I always make 'red beans and rice' with my sausage which is a recipe I got from e-mealz when I was a member a few years ago.  We really like that one too, so I'll have to post that recipe!

One pot meals are pretty much my favorite! This one called for pretty much everything I had on hand, so it was the one I chose.  It was a winner!!!  10 thumbs up here...we finished the pot.  In fact, I commented to Brent after dinner "What are we going to do when Colt starts eating more?" His reply was that the days of leftovers are pretty much over for us.  :)



I found the original recipe on Yellow Bliss Road, but I of course tweaked it a bit.

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil

1 package smoked sausage

1 cup diced onion

1 T minced garlic

1 cup chicken broth

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomato

1/2 cup heavy cream or milk

1 can of corn, undrained

12 oz dry pasta

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

1 cup shredded cheese

 

**If you go to the original recipe, you will notice there are differences! I had chicken broth saved from when I made chicken in the crock pot the day before, but it was only 1 cup.  Original recipe calls for 2 cups.  To make up for the extra liquid needed (so noodles cook) I added the liquid from the can of corn and a 14.5 oz can of tomatoes.  Original recipe doesn't call for corn and only a 10 oz can of tomatoes.  I also added more noodles in mine. But what I did worked perfect and I plan to do the same thing again next time!

 

Directions:

 

1. heat olive oil in pan. 

 

2. add sausage and onions and cook until lightly browned. 

 

3. add garlic and cook 30 seconds.  drain grease as needed.

4. add chicken broth, tomatoes, milk, pasta, and seasonings.

5. boil then cover and simmer 15 min or until pasta is tender

 

6. turn off heat and stir in  1/2 of the cheese. 

 

7. sprinkle remaining cheese on top and cover for about 5 min to melt.

 

8. serve and enjoy!! :)  It's a little runny, but the cheese makes it thicker.  We thought it was fantastic and it will be going in the rotation!

 

Recipe: zucchini bake

It's zucchini season! This is a favorite recipe in our house and I don't think I've shared it yet.  It can be made ahead to freeze then just add the zucchini later--I think it would be better that way than freezing the zucchini.

 

I call it zucchini bake, though you don't even bake it.  It's one of those one pot meals so it is easy clean up--my favorite!

 

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef or ground turkey

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup raw rice (I use brown Minute Rice)

4 cup sliced zucchini

1 1/2 cup beef broth (I use one can chicken broth)

1 large can diced tomato with juice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup grated cheese

 

Directions:

1. In a deep sided frying pan, brown the beef, onions, garlic, and green peppers. Drain if necessary.

2. Add seasonings, tomatoes, broth, rice, and zucchini. 

 

 

3. Cover with lid and simmer for about 20-30 minutes until rice is cooked.

4. Add cheese on top and recover so it melts, then serve! We like ours with biscuits:)

BFIAR: Blueberries for Sal (and tot school: blue and circles)

Book: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

Ages: 19 months, 23 months, 40 months

 

 

This was one of my favorites! Not because the book is all that great (in my opinion) but because the kids loved it so much and there were a lot of fun things to do--all involving blueberries of course:)

 

This was the second week I tried to focus on a color and shape as well as other concepts and involve all three kiddos in the activities.  It went very well!

 

Each morning we would read the book during or after breakfast.  They asked for it every day, which always makes me happy (it was probably because I usually gave them blueberries during or after!)

 

A few days we did different activites and rotated around the table.  I definitely feel like I have a little tot school happening here!

 

I honestly didn't even look in the BFIAR manual this week.  I forgot to because I didn't need any extra ideas.  We didn't get through all the ideas that I had, but it was still a very fun week.

Learning stations that we rotated:

 

1. Putting "blueberries" in a container (blue puff balls)

2. Placing blue poker chips in a container

 

3. Feeding Little Bear

We did a lot of cooking and baking with blueberries!!!

Pancakes:

Muffins:


Blueberry Jam:


  

We also made blue rice! It was my first time dying rice and turned out to be VERY easy!
In a plastic dish, we mixed about 2.5 cups of rice and 2 T vinegar with the food coloring.  Shake it around and laid it on cookie sheet to dry.  It was ready by the time they were up from nap. 

 

 

 

My kids have been doing rice sensory bins for a long long time.  It's amazing how colored rice captures their attention so much more! 

Declan had learned the color blue by the time he was done playing.  He LOVED it!

I love when they have something they can all do together:) They played with this every single day this week.



Printables:

 

 

For snack one day I quickly drew this "blueberry bush" and they had fun putting their blueberries in their "bucket" like Sal.

Another learning station rotation day:

1. Gluing blue circles on the bush

2. Stamping blue thumbprints on the bush

3. Using the dot marker (Raelynn actually is gluing here, but you can see her dots!) as blueberries on the bush.

Another idea that is currently in the freezer is having the kids break the bears and blueberries out of ice! I put them in a plastic dish and filled with water.  I plan to give them some "tools" and they have to break free the bear.  I figure if they don't have much interest in breaking free the plastic bear, they will definitly want the blueberries! :)