Apparently today is Oprah's final show. I actually don't really watch Oprah, but I thought I'd give a nod to the Queen of Daytime and steal one of her themes. :-) I know I'm not Oprah, but I have favorites too! Since I'm always looking for new products/recipes/tips, please feel free to share some of your faves!
1. Barnes and Noble's online storytime. This is great entertainment for when I'm folding laundry or cleaning and need Andrew to do something quietly on his own. His favorites are "Smash Crash" and "Charlie the Ranch Dog." You can also create a playlist so you don't have to keep restarting them!
2. JoJo Electronic Easter Egg Hunt toy. My mom got one for Andrew for Easter and it may just be my favorite toy ever... and it probably one of Andrew's favorites too! This is also great entertainment because I can get things accomplished while still playing with Andrew. You just turn the egg on and hide it and it calls out things like "Yooo hooo!" until Andrew finally finds it! It's really cute hearing Andrew say "JoJo" too. :-)
3. BeFunky.com. Don't have photoshop? No problem! You can upload a photo and have fun editing it on this website and end up with beautiful creations like this...
4. Strawberry muffins. We're trying to get Andrew to try eating fruits and vegetables (he doesn't eat them... ever.) so I've been getting things like strawberries and putting a few pieces on his plate at each meal so hopefully at some point he'll decide to try it. Anyway, when I did strawberry week a few months ago, we had a ton of leftover strawberries so I found this recipe to make sure they didn't get wasted. They're delicious and that's how I eventually got my kid to try strawberries! The only tweak I made was adding 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.
5. Restaurant.com. If you don't use this site, you need to start. Now. Local restaurants use Restaurant.com to for promotion purposes so they'll offer a $25 gift certificate for $10-15. Steal, right? Well it gets better. If you sign up for emails from them, they'll send you (regularly) coupon codes for an additional 50-80% off! That means that you get a $25 gift certificate for $2-3! They also offer gift certificates in other increments like $10 or $50. Just be sure to check the fine print for restrictions. We use this sight a lot when trying new restaurants and are even planning to download a few gift certificates for our trip to Charleston nexy week. I'll even help you out for your first purchase. They are currently running an 80% off promotion through Memorial Day. Enter code: FLAG.
7. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. This product completely lives up to its name! I used it on the wall behind the high chair that has been splattered with pureed prunes, peas, etc. for the past few years. Despite all my best efforts, the dried up splatter has stayed on the wall - until now. After about 30 seconds of using my Magic Eraser, I can testify that this product is indeed magic. I immediately went out and bought a box to have on hand.
8. Garden-to-table cooking. Although we've been slacking so far this year, we usually have a pretty good garden in the summer. (Correction: Jim has a good garden. He's the one with the green thumb.) This year, we are even growing plumbs and peaches! Anyway, I recently discovered something called Outstanding in the Field. They travel to local farms, hire a local chef, set out an impressive display and serve up locally grown food. I would have bought my tickets to the one in Perkasie, PA by now if I had $200/plate to drop on it! Anyway, I love the philosophy of eating fresh, homegrown food so I've been looking into trying new garden-to-table or farm-to-table recipes. If you're into that sort of thing, here are a few links: AllRecipes.com Garden-to-Table Page, Garden to Table Blogs
From healthy food to comfort food...
9. The Happy Waitress. This was a Jersey Diner favorite of mine that is my ultimate comfort food. Bacon, tomato, bacon, melted cheese, bacon, all grilled together on the bread of your choice (I like rye) ... did I mention the bacon? Everything is better with bacon. If only I could have it with a side of Disco fries. Try not to drool on your computer.
10. The Library. There is a whole world of entertainment and education available to you and guess what... it's FREE! I don't know why I never took advantage of everything it had to offer before. We did 'Toddler Tales' (story/play time) when Andrew was younger and he loved it. Lately we like to go play in the children's section and read books on rainy days. Yesterday I stocked up on kids DVD's for our upcoming 12-hour road trip. Score!
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