Candy Corn Rice Crispy Treats

In the spirit of Halloween I decided that we would make candy corn rice crispy treats:) This was a fairly easy project. I melted half a stick of butter in the microwave. I then had the kids measure out nine cups of mini marshmallows. Which I then microwaved till they were melted. We poured the melted butter into the marshmallows and I stirred them up.I then gave Amira some yellow food dye and Zaid some red. I asked them what color they thought we would get when we mixed the two together. I said let's find out and I told Amira to add one drop of yellow and Zaid to add two to make the mixture orange. Then the kids poured ten cups of rice crispies into a large pot. Then we mixed in 3/4 of a cup of chocolate chips and 3/4 of a cup of candy corn. Before I measured the candy corn I gave a piece to Amira and Zaid since they never had candy corn before. Zaid was willing to lick it and said that he didn't like it. Amira ate it saying and making faces at the same time "oh yuck it is horrible." Zaid look at her and told her "That is why I just lick it" LOL. The kids then took turns stirring the pot, till it was well mixed. Then I poured in the marshmallow mixture. I stirred it up and scooped out the mixture into a well greased cake pan. At this point I told Amira and Zaid to push the rice crispies down into the pan. Amira did so saying "ooooh it is sticky", Zaid just look at it like it was evil. I asked Zaid if he wanted to push down with us and he gave a very strong no as his answer. So then I wrapped up the pan with foil and refrigerated it for an hour and it came out delicious!

Ingredients

10 cups Rice Crispies

9 cups mini marshmallows

3/4 chocolate chips

3/4 candy corn

1/2 of butter

yellow food coloring

red food coloring

Mickey Mouse Shaped Chicken Patties

Zaid ate some Mickey Mouse shaped chicken patties-twice! Zaid saw these in the freezer section of the store and wanted them. When we first brought them home I made them and Zaid said that he didn't want them. Yesterday, he wanted to take a look inside the freezer, so daddy held him up and he pointed out all the food saying this is "mommy's food", etc. When he got to the Mickey Mouse shaped chicken patties, he said "Those our mine, I want them." So daddy heated them up in the microwave. After they were done Sadiq cut them up into small pieces. Zaid would occansionally eat a chicken nugget. And when I say eat I mean like two bites. He has not ate a chicken nugget in a while. We asked him why and he told us that the food stays too long in his mouth. So Sadiq cut the Mickey Shaped Chicken Patty up for him and they sat at his little table and they had a race. Who could eat the fastest, making sure that he was chewing well of course. Zaid always won of course and he loved it. When I came home I did the same thing with him and he ate it no problem:)

Octopus Cupcakes

I discovered this cute idea for octopus cupcakes on FamilyFun.com. So I brought home the book Good Thing Your Not an Octopus by Julie Markes from the library. Zaid just loved the book! So then we proceeded to make our octopus cupcakes. First, we made our cupcakes from a cake mix. I used chocolate cake mix, but you can use any kind you like. Previously in the day Zaid went grocery shopping with me and we got special Cars cupcake liners:) Zaid thought this was neat to be using them and placing them in the cupcake pan. Next Amira and Zaid each got to spoon in the cake mix into the cupcake liners. I had them use an ice cream scoop. I find that it is a lot easier for kids to scoop up the cake mix and plop them in the liners than using a spoon, less spills. Zaid absolutely loved this part. He even got some cake mix on his hand and ignored it and kept on going scooping the cake mix. I was pretty amazed. Next after the cupcakes have baked and cooled we frosted our cupcakes. Zaid did some and then got some frosting on his hand and said that his cupcake was done. So I finished frosting his cupcake. The kids each placed a blow pop in the center of the cupcake for the octopus's head. Note, you will need to cut the blow pop stick in half first in order for it to fit the cupcake. Then we used chocolate chips for the eyes. I had the dip the chocolate chip in the frosting for Zaid and then put it on the plate and had him pick it up and place it on the octopus. Then for the legs, you are suppose to use gummy worms, but I didn't have any so we used fruit roll ups. We was very difficult for mommy to have to peel and roll. I highly recommend using the gummy worms. Zaid and Amira then placed the fruit roll ups on the cupcakes for the octopus's legs. I also asked Amira how many legs o tentacles does an octopus have and had her count her octopus legs till we had the right number. A little math lesson thrown in there:) During this process, one of Zaid's octopus legs fell off. So I told him just place it back. He eyed the frosted cupcake and shook his head no. "You do it." I said but your octopus is missing a leg in a playful manner. I said just pick it up and put it on the cupcake like the other legs. So to my delight he pick it up and put it on the octopus. Then I said we are all done now. Do you want to eat yours? Zaid said no. Amira said yes, but without the candy. So she dissected her octopus till all was left but a plain frosted cupcake LOL. Amira does not like any candy, but now she is eating cake with frosting. There was a time when she like Zaid was extremely limited and would not eat cake, much less cake with frosting! So while Amira was eating her cupake Zaid asked to frost the other cupcakes. Which really surprised me since earlier, when the frosting got on his hands he wanted to stop. So I said sure and he frosted the cupcakes and I mean frosted them. He put so much on I had to tell him really that is enough. So all in all it was a success.

Octopus Cupcake ingredients

One box cake mix

Frosting

Blow pops

Chocolate chips

Gummy worms

Beach Scene

Today, we read a book about going to the beach. So I decided that we could create our own beach scene using food.

ingredients

graham crackers,

white frosting

blue food coloring

gummy fish

rolo candy

round nerd candy

fruit roll up

Umbrellas found in cocktail drinks

I started by placing a graham cracker in a Ziplock bag and having the kids crush the graham cracker using a rolling pin. Zaid loved this part. Next we spread on white frost on one half of a graham cracker. Then I took some white frosting and let the kids add in the blue food coloring and had them stir it up. Zaid also enjoyed adding the frosting. Then we spread the blue frosting on the other half of the graham cracker to create an ocean. Zaid really didn't have a problem with this; if some got on his fingers I let him wipe them off with a paper towel. Next we took our crushed graham crackers and sprinkled them on the graham cracker that had the white frosting to create the beach. Before I gave them the candy to make the scene I had them tell me what they would find on a beach. Next we took the gummy fish and placed them in the blue frosting, it wasn't very proportionate, so we called them whales instead of fish:) Then I had them take some nerd candy and place them in the "sand" for a beach ball. Next I gave them each a fruit roll up and said let's see what color we get. I opened Zaid's fruit roll up and had him smell it. Then I broke off a piece and let them place their "beach towel" on the sand. I also gave them each a rolo to place as a sand castle. We also had little umbrella's that you get in drinks and that really made the beach scene. In the end they came out nice. Zaid didn't want to eat his, but Amira wanted to each the graham cracker without any of the candy lol. She still doesn't like candy, but I am not complaining:)

Zaid held a piece of pizza

We had a mini break through the other day. Usually, when we order pizza, Zaid will always say that he wants a piece of pizza. Most of the times he just looks at it and says that he doesn't want it. But the other day, Zaid picked up his piece of pizza and brought it to his mouth. It never touched his mouth and he didn't bite it. But just the fact that he held it is so amazing. I hope this is the start of something!

Going on a bear hunt

Today we went on a bear hunt! We first read the book Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. Then I had the kids act out like they were going on a bear hunt, something that I would do for a storytime. Then I hid teddy graham bears around the house. Teddy graham bears are something that zaid refuses to eat. I picked out the cinnamon ones, since zaid likes cinnamon buns and cinnamon toast sticks. Earlier, that day I had taken Zaid to storytime at the library and ironically the storytime theme was bears. I told the my friend who was the librarian for the storytime that day what I was planning on doing and she gave me some dye cut bears shapes. So I was able to write #1 bear hunter on the tags and before we went on our hunt, we put on our bear tags and I gave them each a ziplock bag to put the bears that they were going to find in. Amira and Zaid just loved the hunt. After they collected all the bears. We took them back to the table and counted them. I thought that Zaid was going to be apprehensive about the bears, but after we counted them Amira asked "Can we eat them now?". Zaid also responded asking "Can we eat them?" "Go ahead I said amazed and he gobbled up one, then two ,then three. I asked Zaid "do you like them?" and he nodded his head enthusiastically. Then he said "I don't want anymore". "O.k." I said, "now we are going to make ice cream bears". So I let them pick the flavor of ice cream that they wanted. Zaid chose vanilla, I asked him if he was sure that he didn't want strawberry. Since he liked the strawberry ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. He said "no". So I scooped out the ice cream and gave them vanilla wafers for ears and chocolate chips for the eyes and nose. Always telling them what a wafer was and having them smell it beforehand. Zaid put them on his ice cream, but didn't want to eat it. I said "do you want to lick it?" and he said "o.k." and poked at the ice cream on the spoon with the tip of his tongue. He made a face like it tasted awful and said he didn't want anymore and our bear journey ended. Later on in the day when I put together snacks on the divided tray I added a few teddy bear grahams. When Zaid saw them he said "more of them?" I said "yes" from our bear hunt. He said I don't want any, so I said o.k. eat your other snacks and he was fine with that. I was happy because if he doesn't want them he usually asks that they be removed or he picks them up and throws them. But he didn't mind the teddy grahams on the tray, so I will try them again later this week and see how it goes.

Zaid ate part of a cookie today!

I can't believe it, but Zaid asked to eat a sugar cookie with orange frosting. Now, he will eat chocolate cookies sometimes, but not often. But today he asked to have one of the suger cookies that I bought from the store; it had orange frosting and sprinkles. Zaid likes things that are orange so maybe the frosting attracted him. I gave him the cookie and he asked what the sprinkles were He said he didn't like sprinkles, so Iasked him if he wanted me to take the sprinkles off. He said yes and took a bite of the cookie! Then he took another! Then he said that he was done. Then he asked for another one; a new cookie. So I gave it to him and he handed it back to me and said that he was done. The he said on his own. I liked the cookie, but I am done:)

Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar

We had such a sucess today! We read the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Then we made fuzzy caterpillars using bananas, peanut butter, shredded coconut and raisins. I got this idea from the book Kid's First Cookbook by the American Cancer Society.I had both Amira and Zaid each peel a banana. Then I gave them plastic knifes and had them spread peanut butter over the bananas. Zaid kept on saying that he wanted to spread more peanut butter, till it got on his hands and he said that he was done. I told him that it was o.k. if it gets some on his hands and gave him a paper towl to wipe them. Then we proceeded to the shredded coconut. Something that is totally new to Zaid. I told them where the cocnut comes from and I put some in a bowl and had them smell it first. I said doesn't that smell good? Amira said "yes, it smells wonderful!". Zaid smelled it and smiled. I put the bowl in front of them and told them to sprinkle it on their banana to make the caterpillar look fuzzy. I expected Zaid to have a hard time with this since he had such a hard time with the cheese making a pizza. But he had no problem whatsoever, success #1! Amira, who also has some Sensory Integration disorder also, but has overcome most of it through lots of theapy when she was younger actually got upset, because some of the banana got on her hands, go figure:) We then added two raisins for eyes. Amira did hers first. Zaid put one eye on and some peanut butter got on his hands. I said that's o.k. oh look Amira's caterpiller has eyes, you need to give your caterpiller two eyes also. Zaid tried again no problem. They were both so proud of their caterpillar that they ran over to their dad to show him. I then called Zaid over and said look we have some raisins left over give them to daddy. Daddy ate one and said "Zaid and Amira have one with me and give one to mommy also, so we can eat like a family" and Zaid ate one! Success # 2. Zaid didn't want anymore after that, but he ate one which is more then we could ever have expected. So we are so happy!

Pete's a Pizza

Being a librarian I thought that I could bring some Children's books into our activities. So today I decided that we would make pizza. A perfect book for this project is Pete's a Pizza by William Steig. The book is about a boy whose parents pretend that he is a pizza that they are making. They roll him and sprinkle some paper on him for cheese, and place checkers on him for pepperoni etc. This is a perfect book for the sensory child because after reading the book who can pretend that your child is a pizza. You can have them roll on the floor and if they can tolerate it sprinkle some tissue paper on them etc. So after we read the book it was time to make our own real pizza.I already bought premade crust and had Amira and Zaid spoon on the sauce, which they like. Then I had them sprinkle on the cheese. Zaid did not like this at all. He tried it and said that he didn't want to do it, because of the way it felt on his hands, so Amira finished sprinkling on the cheese for him. Now looking back I should have had Zaid use the spoon to sprinkle on the cheese. Oh, well live and learn. Then they put on the green peppers Zaid was fine with this and also the mushrooms. Viola, Pizza! Yum!

Breakfast

In the morning when we give Zaid his breakfast we use the divided plate. Using the divided plate was suggested by Cheri Fraker a speech therapist who created the food chaining method for children with feeding disorders. It is a great idea because the different foods are not touching one another. We noticed with Zaid that he will eat more of the foods that he does like if they are separated from one another. Even when we give him french fries and tater tots we spread them around on the plate never having them pile up. So this morning I asked Zaid if he wanted a waffle or french toast sticks. He said that he wanted French toast sticks or sticks as he calls them. So I put french toast sticks, cheerios and goldfish crackers all the foods that he does eat and a few pieces of trix cereal. Now trix cereal he won't eat. As soon as he saw them he pointed to them and said I don't want those. I tried to convince him to let them stay on his plate, by telling him that he didn't have to eat them and seeing if he could name the colors. Just allowing the trix to stay on the plate would be a step forward,but it was no use he began to pick them up and throw each one, something that we have been trying to get him not to do. If he doesn't like something he throws it. In the end he just ate the cheerios. This is how most mornings go. It is very hard to convince him to eat breakfast. Probably because he has already woken up numerous times to drink pediasure in the middle of the night and he is not hungry. Alas, this is breakfast at our house:)

Zaid eats Ice Cream!

Today, Zaid licked some ice cream. Now it may not seem like much, but this is a soft, cold, sweet texture unlike the texture of foods that he normally eats. So this was a major breakthrough for us. About six months ago he use to eat ice cream if we gave him some off a spoon, then he suddenly stopped and refused it. Today, we went to Cold Stone Creamery. As I was paying for the ice cream he came running up to me and said "Mommy, get a spoon for me to eat ice cream." I brought out the ice cream and he said "I want some ice cream too in my own cup". He didn't want any of mine since mine had brownies and sprinkles in it, but his sister's was plain strawberry. He wanted some of hers. So we gave him some in his own bowl with a spoon. We fully expected him to just play with the ice cream, but he spooned some up and touched the tip of his tongue to the spoon, just eating the tiniest amount. Some got on his finger and he started to panic. Daddy just told him that's o.k. lick it off and he did! Then he began to scoop more and more and take in more amounts all licks off the spoon, never the full spoon in his mouth, but it was a major start! We are so happy! It seems that with feeding disorders, the child usually starts to eat a food that he or she initiates. Amira was the same way, she began to ask for foods. It was never the foods that we were trying to get her to eat. I didn't place the ice cream in front of Zaid and say eat it. He asked for it and he had the control to eat or lick as much as he wanted. And I hope that this is the start of the beginning of more foods to come.

Fruit UFOs

Our cooking project for today was Fruit UFOs. Zaid did not want to do any cooking project at all. So after a lot of pleading and telling him that we have our own cooking show (This blog) I convinced him to make the fruit UFOs. I wanted to do something different, not using peanut butter. The Fruit UFOs are simple, just oranges cut in half, any type of berries or grapes and toothpicks. This project was really simple and a piece of cake for Amira who is 5 years old. Zaid needed help with the toohpicks. But he loved putting the grapes on the sticks and sticking them in the orange.

Silly Sandwich Faces.

Today, Amira and Zaid made silly faces on bread. We did this by simply having them spread peanut butter on toasted bread. Taking pieces of banana and puting them on the bread for the eyes and using raisins to create the mouth and nose. Amira had a blast doing this. Zaid found it more difficult, because occasionally some peanut butter would get on his fingers. But we just reassured him that he could wipe his hands off on a paper towel. He really liked putting the raisins on the bread. Did not want to try to taste anything, but that is o.k. I had them smell the peanut butter and just touching the peanut butter and some mushy banana pieces was a hurdle for Zaid.