Coney Hot dog Spaghetti

   I came across this on Pinterest.  Someone has posted a photo of hot dog slices with spaghetti pushed through them.  I thought the kids would love it!  So I made it last night.  They were thrilled!  They couldn't figure out how I made it.  Can you?

  
It's pretty easy.  Just push the spaghetti noodles through the slices before you cook them and there you go!  I threw the pasta and hot dogs in the boiling water together and they cook up just fine.

I couldn't figure out how to top it, so I went to the pantry for inspiration.  I found a can of chili and thought that could work.  Coney Pasta!  The kids loved it!  Nathan was a bit put off by the noodles through the hot dog, but he loved the chili.
  

This could be a fun dish to make for Halloween, as it's kind of creepy.  Maybe even shorten the noodles to give it more of a spider appearance!
  
Try this out with your kids, I bet they'll love it!

I Changed the Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal!

Okay so yesterday, I posted a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal after I made it that morning.  I liked it, but I felt it could be better.  So this morning I made some changes.  I want to pass the changes along, so you can benefit too.

It's pretty much the same with a just a few changes. I'll underline the changes.



Ingredients:

1 3/4 C Vanilla Soy

1 C old fashioned oats
1/3 C pumpkin puree

1 Tbs butter
2 Tbs Brown Sugar (or to taste, I added a tiny pinch more) 
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped pumpkin spice almonds (or plain if you like)


Bring the vanilla soy milk to a boil and then add the oats.  Cook for 5 minutes and allow to sit (if needed) to reach desired consistency.  Then add the butter.  Add the brown sugar and spices next. Last add the pumpkin puree.  Then top with Almonds and mix if you want.


I thought the pumpkin puree was just too much last time.  So you can see I reduced it by just a little. I like to taste the spices.  So I added a little more nutmeg.  I really felt it needed to be a little creamier and have a hit of vanilla, so I added the soy milk.  See what you think!

Enjoy!!

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

Today I tried out a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal.  It is delicious, I think I'm going to experiment with the recipe and see if I can't make it more delicious.  I think it needs a little less pumpkin and more spices.  It's very good though.  Someone else suggested dried cranberries.  I didn't have any, but that could be good too!

Even though this is my photography blog, I thought I'd share this here anyway.  I did take the photos.


Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup water
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup chopped almonds (I used Planters Pumpkin Spice Almonds)

Bring the water to a boil and add the oats.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Turn off the burner and allow to thicken if needed.  Stir in the pumpkin puree, butter, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice.  Fold in the almonds, or any other toppings you think are delicious!  Enjoy!

My Fall Decorations

I have my fall stuff up.  I actually put it up early September.  I love the fall colors so much!  It's one of my favorite seasons.  I would like to add a few things.  My dining room table doesn't look good.  I want to fill the blue box with pumpkins, I just haven't gotten around to it. I also want to make a fall banner to hang above my big window.  We'll see if I get the time.  But anyway,  here's a look at my house in the fall...

The fireplace mantel.  Simple, just a stick I picked up in Monterey, crows, a few pumpkins, leaves, a string of orange lights and a pumpkin man. My mom actually came up with this idea.

Above the sink.

This is above my TV armoire.

I love this witch!

This needs a cute banner hanging above the big square window.

Back to School

We are officially back to school here at the Mandel house.  Noah and the girls started back to school on August 25th.  It was actually supposed to be on August 24th, but the 5.9 earthquake delayed the opening of school by one day!  I don't have any photos of Noah going back to school, he didn't want to be embarrassed by his mother at the bus stop.  He is doing great, and loves his new school.  He enjoys his band class.  He's learning to play the clarinet!  He enjoys P.E. and especially likes the food court at his school.  Here you can see Maddie working on her Math, while Nathan plays nearby.

As for homeschooling, it's going really well.  I'd say that after years of doing it, I finally feel like I've got it down.  I have a good curriculum that I pieced together myself.  I have a schedule for the whole year written out, which I also put together.  I'm kind of proud of myself.   It took about 3 days to get the whole year scheduled.  You can see Grace is working on the computer for math. We are using Tecahing Textbooks, this year. It's a great computer based math program.  It keeps her engaged and she is doing well with it! 

We are using a new (to us) science program this year, called Apologia Science.  We are studying anatomy and physiology.  Our first unit was about cells and a little history of science.  We really enjoy this science.  We have a big experiment kit, and have done some fun stuff already.  The girls used jello and candy to make a model of a cell.

This is our diagram of a cell's parts.  Grace took her test yesterday and new all the parts of the cell!  She's doing really well in school.

We are saying Madison is in Kindergarten, but I am using first grade material to teach her.  She is at a first grade reading level and math level.  She shares science and history with Grace, and is working on her penmanship.  She is doing really well too!

Disney World

So, I have been a bad blogger.  I just haven't blogged in a while!  So here are a few posts.  We went to Disney World in August.  It was HOT!  I don't recommend going at that time of year.  It's just way too HOT!  We had a good time none the less, but wow, was it HOT!  Nathan, loved the characters and wasn't shy about hugging them, kissing them and sucking on their noses! 

Noah with his hands in George Lucas' handprints, in front of The Great Movie Ride, at MGM.

Madison celebrated her birthday in Orlando. She wanted to spend the day at Blizzard Beach, one of Disney's Water Parks.  It was a good idea.  We should have done that everyday!  It was so refreshing!  Did I mention that it was HOT in Flordia?

At Disney's Animal Kingdom we got rained poured on!  It was a drenching, soaking rain.  We went from burning up to freezing!  I took this photo on our way out.  They are soaked as you can see.  We had to head back to the hotel so we could change.  There was no way we could continue on in our current condition.  The kids enjoyed playing in the puddles, so it was some good entertainment.

Nathan loved the carousel, this was fortunate, since the wait is nothing, and he went on it several times.  We actually didn't wait any longer than 30 minutes for any ride.  We used the fast pass for the ones with longer waits, and the rest were short waits.  I guess everyone else was either in school, or already new that it was just too HOT!   :-)