Easter 2014 and a Yummy Recipe for Leftover Hard Boiled Eggs

We had a nice Easter this year with just our family and Grandma. We did quite a few fun activities leading up to Easter Sunday that I wanted to share with you and at the end of this post is a great recipe to try for using up some of those hard boiled eggs!

For the last several years I’ve done Resurrection Eggs with the kids for the 12 days leading up to Easter Sunday. We made the eggs a few years ago and have been re-using them each year. You can see our egg carton in the bottom right of the pic below. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a great way to reinforce the true meaning of Easter. This year I hid two eggs each day – one was the Resurrection egg with the symbol and message and the other had a small piece of candy in it for each kid. The kids loved looking for the eggs each day. This year E and I decided to mount the symbols and messages on a painted piece of cardboard instead of just putting them back in the eggs. E and I also put together a great Easter Lapbook (I downloaded the FREE Easter Lapbook). I find lapbooks to be a great teaching tool for a variety of subjects and you can make them as simple or fancy as you want. You can see the outside of ours in the bottom left side of the first pic and the inside of the book in the second pic.Claire and I made hard boiled eggs using this recipe for Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs. She’s been into wearing swim goggles around the house and apparently thought they were necessary for working with the eggs.  Of course we decorated our hard boiled eggs. Both kids participated, but I found this pic especially funny as Claire decided to spend most of the time painting her hand instead of the eggs. We’ve had the book In Elmo’s Easter Parade for several years and this year the kids were inspired by the book to create their own Easter bonnets. We hit up the dollar store for cheap hats and items to use for decorations. They had fun making them look silly and then wearing them around the house and outside.

After church on Sunday the kids did an egg hunt around our yard. They had a great time running around looking for the eggs daddy hid for them. It was the perfect day for an outdoor egg hunt.

We didn’t have the traditional ham for our Easter dinner since none of us really care too much for it (other than Grandma), so the kids chose pancakes and bacon instead. We don’t eat bacon very often but I got a pack of uncured bacon recently on Manager’s Special and tried out making it in the oven (see this recipe for Crispy Oven-Baked Bacon). The bacon turned out great and it was so much easier and created less mess than cooking it in the microwave or frying pan.

I’m sure many of you, like me, have some leftover hard boiled eggs you are looking to use up. Egg salad has never been a favorite of mine but Claire and I made a twist on the traditional with this Smashed Chickpea Guacamole Egg Salad and thought it turned out pretty good. Below are some pics of her at work. We liked the addition of chickpeas and using avocado instead of the traditional mayo. We also used some plain Greek yogurt in place of the “optional” mayo called for in the recipe. My little helper made me laugh when she said “WOW! Look at that seed” when we cut open the avocado and “I’m so proud” when she was chopping the avocado by herself with a knife (of course very carefully supervised).

I hope you all had a nice Easter too!

 

 

Perfect Friday Night – a Walk, Greek Food, and a Movie

We had a busy weekend with a visit from Grandma on Saturday and then a trip to Papa’s for the day yesterday to celebrate his 65th birthday. Before all of that, we were able to enjoy a fun night as a family on Friday. Our evening started with a walk (E riding his bike) to CVS to pick up a movie from the Redbox. It was a beautiful night for a walk and it felt great to get outside without freezing! When we got home I went straight to the kitchen to make dinner while Scott and the kids played outside. We love Greek food and our dinner was a combination of several yummy Greek inspired recipes that I put together for a complete meal. See below for the recipes. After dinner Scott and the kids watched a movie while I spent more time in the kitchen cleaning up and experimenting with a few more recipes (my favorite thing to do when the kids are busy!). It’s rare that I sit down to watch a movie so fortunately with the set-up of our house, I can be in the kitchen and still feel like I’m with them as they watch the movie. I did end up sitting down to hold a nice warm and snugly C for the last 20 minutes or so of the movie, which was a sweet way to end the night :).

Here’s what we had for dinner. We could eat Greek (or Mediterranean food) every day!

• Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce (We just had the chicken part of this recipe and I added about 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt to the marinade. I typically just throw together my own version of tzatziki rather than following a recipe.)

• Whole Wheat Flatbreads (This was the first time I made this recipe. I used non-fat Greek yogurt because I didn’t have full fat and added a little extra olive oil and water to make up for it. Also grilled them in our grill pan which resulted in them being a bit flatter than the pic from the original recipe but they turned out great and I’ll definitely make this recipe again. It feels good to eat bread that has none of the extra junk that is in the store-bought versions.)
• Tzatziki (I made my own quick version with Greek yogurt, a few splashes of lemon juice, garlic powder, pepper, and salt.)

• Cooked bulgar (I am in love with Trader Joe’s quick cook grains. For this meal I cooked the bulgar with chicken broth, chopped onions and garlic.)
• Ezra’s feta cheese (This is a new found favorite product!! It was on Manager’s Special at Kroger and I’ll tell you what….it’s the best feta cheese we’ve had since we were in Greece. The best part is that it’s made where my sister lives in Millersburg, OH. Look for it if you have a Kroger nearby. It’s a little more expensive than other varieties but well worth the extra cost.)
• Chopped tomatoes and cucumbers

Hope you all had a great weekend despite the loss of an hour of sleep! It seems Spring might be just around the corner here in Central Ohio. Thank God!!!

Red Bean, Yogurt, and Avocado Dip

I came across a healthy, simple and delicious recipe for a red bean dip in Family Circle magazine. I made a few changes and loved the end result. The dip is low in fat and a good mix of fiber and protein. I used it to spread over my egg and veggie lunch but it would also be great as a dip for raw veggies, crackers or snack chips, or even as a sandwich spread. You know it’s a good one when you can’t get your little one to stop eating it straight from the bowl!

Red Bean, Yogurt, and Avocado Dip

Recipe by enspirebalance.com

Estimated Times:
Total Time – 15 minutes | Yields – About 2 cups

Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tblsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 of a large ripe avocado, pitted and removed from skin
Fine sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Preparation Instructions:
1. In a food processor (a mini one should work just fine), chop garlic and then add remaining ingredients, processing until smooth. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.