Preschool Science Activity - Making Apple Butter

The beautiful fall view out my living room window.

 Fall is such a beautiful time here in the Midwest!  It may be a little chilly and a little wet, but the stunning colors and the plentiful harvest more than make up for it.  Around here, you can't think about fall without thinking APPLES, so I figured making some apple butter with Trevor would be a great activity!

This activity is suggested in The Kids' Nature Book that we are using and the concept is also used in one of the Sid the Science Kid experiments, so I put the two together, added a little of my own flare, and came up with a great little activity for this fall morning.

First we gathered all of our materials.  I know this is not a precise kind of recipe, but we took the opportunity to get out the food scale and weigh the apples.  We talked about what a scale does and then Trevor watched the numbers as Mackenzie added apples to the bowl on the scale.

I let the kids watch some TV while I sat and cut up the apples.  This is what we were left with after Mackenzie ate about every other one that I put in the pot =)  The lesson learned is to feed your little girl breakfast before you start this activity!  (You may have noticed the kids are still in their PJ's...we started this activity first thing in the morning since it's supposed to cook all day!)

This is where the science part came in.  As soon as I finished cutting the apples up, I told Trevor to come over and mash them up into apple sauce for me.  He tried and the first thing he said was "They're too hard!"  I asked Trevor to tell me what else he observed about the apples that were in the pot.  He needed a little prompting about what to look for, but he came up with that they apples were kind of yellow, cold, and crunchy.  I told him that we would observe the apples again after they had been cooked.

So we set the slow cooker to cook for a few hours.  After about two hours we observed the apples again.  Very carefully I had Trevor try to mash the apples.  This time they were soft!  Now they were also hot (instead of cold), turning brown (instead of yellow), and mushy (instead of crunchy...but of course he didn't taste them at this point....too hot!)  Then we added some honey and our spices and left the apples to continue cooking.

Then I made up this copywork sheet for him to practice reading and writing the words that he had used to describe this apples.   Fell free to download this to use with your children!

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Do you love using copywork with your children? Find more at Classical Copywork!

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Here is the recipe that I ended up using:

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

5 lbs  Apples, peeled and cored
2T     maple syrup
1/2 c  honey (adjust to your liking depending on the type of apples you use)
1T     cinnamon
1t       cloves
pinch  nutmeg

• Cut apples into chunks and place into slow cooker.  Add maple syrup and cook on low for 2 hours (or until apples can be mashed).
• Add honey and spices and mash to combine.
• Stir/mash every hour until desired consistency is obtained (it may take several hours).  Let cook with the lid off if you have excess moisture.
• Use immediately, refrigerate leftovers to be used within a few days, or save in a jar to be frozen or canned for future use or to be given as gifts.

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Looking for more preschool information?  Visit my All Things Preschool page to find a list of all the preschool posts here at Living and Learning at Home, plus some of my favorite preschool resources!

Yummy Smoothie Popsicles

I'm always on a quest to eat healthier.  Sometimes I don't have the energy to think about it, but it's always floating around in the back of my mind and pops back up from time to time.  This past week our family decided to start an elimination diet.  Anyone with food allergies is probably familiar with this sort of diet.  Basically it's eliminating lots of foods (or just a few if you're pretty sure what your issue is), letting your body sort of rest on easy foods for a while, and then reintroducing the foods one at a time to see how your body reacts.  No one in my family has any serious allergies, but we all have something that bothers us, from tummies, to skin, to energy, etc., so I thought this would be beneficial.  Anyways, all that to say that the foods we have to eat these days are quite limited and I am trying to find yummy variations of the foods we can eat so we don't burn out from food boredom!

Since it's been so HOT around here this week, I thought that trying to make up some popsicles would be fun (plus, Trevor is obsessed with things that freeze and melt =)  Since the back-to-school merchandise has already taken over the stores, popsicle molds were a little hard to come by, but I eventually found some.  Since we are going for healthy, I looked around online to try to find ideas for an all-fruit popsicle.  I basically followed this recipe for All Fruit Popsicles.  I used all cantaloupe (because that's what I had) and raspberries instead of strawberries (because strawberries are on our no-no list right now!)

Just cut up your fruit (I used 1/2 of a cantaloupe and a handful of raspberries) and throw it in the blender.  Pour your (thick) mixture into your molds and let freeze for a couple of hours. It's as simple as that!

Our molds.

They look like little sailboats!  I was suspicious of how they would work since the molds were only $1, but they come out perfectly!

The kids enjoying their popsicles.  Trevor ate three =)  He would have eaten more if we hadn't stopped him!

Once I made them up I realized that really it's just freezing a smoothie, so I poured some of Tim's leftover smoothie into more molds and this morning I checked and they came out great as well!  Now as long as Trevor doesn't notice the spinach in the new batch I think I've got a winner!  It's a fantastic, yummy, fun way to have your kids eat their fruits and veggies on these hot summer days.

Happy Summer!

Homemade Chapstick

A few years ago I stumbled across a recipe for homemade chapstick.  Since then I've made a few tweaks to the original recipe and have come up with a product that I really love!  It is made with quality ingredients that you can feel good about putting on your body, it is cheaper per tube than buying the stuff pre-made at the store, and best of all, it's so simple to make!  The hardest part is finding the ingredients, but with the internet, you can find anything!  I have been very happy with http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ for all sorts of ingredients including everything that is needed for this chapstick recipe! 

This recipe makes about 20 tubes (.15 oz), which enough to last anyone for quite a while!  I love it because I only have to make up a batch every couple of years =)




Ingredients:

1oz.   Beeswax
1oz.   Cocoa Butter
.5 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
1oz.   Shea or Mango Butter
         Essential Oil (for scent if desired)
         Vitamin E (for preservation if desired)

Using a double boiler (or similar contraption) melt together the beeswax, cocoa butter, and almond oil over a pan with simmering water in it.  When it is completely melted together, add the shea or mango butter and mix until liquefied.  If you are using an essential oil (about 10 drops) and/or Vitamin E (a few drops) stir them in just before you are ready to fill your tubes.







Working quickly, pour the liquid into your tubes (or whatever kind of container you desire).  I use a spoon to transfer the liquid, but I suppose you could pour right from the bowl if you are confident in your pouring skills!  The liquid will harden into the chapstick consistency your are used to very quickly (notice that the first few tubes in the picture are already hardening by the time I am finished filling the first row of tubes).




Happy Healing!

Superfood Chocolate Cake

The past few weeks I've been trying to figure out what kind of cake to make for Mackenzie's birthday party.  Of course I would ideally like it to be somewhat healthy, but I also want it to be delicious for the party guests.  When I searched online for a "whole wheat cake" recipe, I found a recipe that looked decent and even contained some hidden spinach!  I gave it a try a few weeks ago when Trevor and I made our moon cake and it was really good!  I wanted to see if I could make it just a little healthier without compromising the taste, so I gave it another try yesterday with a few switched ingredients.  I know it's not completely healthy (it has some butter and sugar) but it's full of great superfoods and is made with fresh ground whole wheat!  Spinach, blueberries, dark chocolate, cacao, and even whole wheat are all considered superfoods for their dense nutritional content and the health benefits that they offer.  Do a search for "superfood" and any of those ingredients to learn more for yourself!  I didn't mess around trying to improve the butter or sugar, but if you've ever successfully substituted something for these ingredients while baking, I'd love to know!  Here is what I came up with...

Dark Chocolate Blueberry Cake

1c      frozen chopped spinach
1c      blueberries (fresh or frozen)
4T     butter
1/3 c  dark chocolate, chopped
1        egg
2t       vanilla
1/2 c   sugar
1c       whole wheat flour
2T      cacao powder (this is raw cocoa)
2t        baking powder
1/2 t    salt

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Cook spinach and blueberries either in the microwave or on top of the stove until soft.  Take the mixture and puree it in a blender or a food processor.
- Melt butter and dark chocolate together (on the stove, or in the microwave for 30 seconds).
- Stir together the wet ingredients (chocolate and butter mixture, spinach and blueberry mixture, egg, vanilla, and sugar).
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cacao powder, and salt).
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Pour the batter into cake pan or muffin tins. Bake for approximately 25 minutes (slightly more if you are doing one big cake).
- Cool completely.  It smells slightly like spinach if you eat it when it is warm =)

Happy Baking!