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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Family Home Evening!

I know I have some LDS readers but I think Family Home Evening is something that families of any faith could do. We started a little tradition a few weeks ago of making pizza every Monday night! I've loved it so far. What we do is start by washing our hands and letting the boys put on all of the toppings. They get a little crazy but I think letting them build the pizza with healthy ingredients makes them more excited to eat it later. After we've built the pizza We put it in the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. While the boys are still at the table we let one of them say the opening prayer, sing a song, and then me or Nate present a very short lesson from the Nursery Manual. The boys are so young so we keep the lesson really short and use a lot of props (puppets, pictures, songs, skits, games.) When the timer dings, we cut the pizza and eat dinner together and then we do something fun together as a family like making a home made toilet paper catapult!!

The way we make our Pizza is not the way I want to do it forever. I want to try and find ways to make a healthier crust. Right now we are using Pillsbury roll out sough because I got it on sale for really cheap! I want to learn to make my own crust and play with ways to get more veggies into the toppings.
The pizza in the picture is mozzarella, spinach (chopped super fine and stirred in the sauce, Caden loves doing this part), red bell peppers, and black olives! I can't wait to try out some new veggie pizzas. If anyone has any ideas let me know:)

Here is my favorite picture from the catapult. It's me shooting the pop together vehicles. I love that you can see them all bunched together! Such a fun Family Night!!

4 comments:

  1. I don't know if I've commented on here before, but I am one of those LDS readers. This is a great idea! We tried doing homemade pizza every Friday night, but that didn't work out so well because on Friday nights we just don't want to do much. Doing it this way for FHE is great! I also like the idea of chopping up the spinach really fine and putting it in the sauce. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Wow- it looks like you guys had a great time! We like to make our pizzas on Friday nights, and we too use the same crust you do! My partner loves to make the pizza and she always does a great job! This link ( http://familystylelove.blogspot.com/2008/08/good-things.html ) is to a post about our best pizza- which actually had no sauce, but used heirloom tomatoes and veggies instead! It is amazing what you can put on a pizza!

    I love your blog, by the way- you have such great ideas for your boys!

    cheers!

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  3. What a great idea! As a mom of just one, a 19-month-old, I'm so impressed with all the great activities you provide for your family! I'm going to use that spinach trick, too!

    I love to make homemade pizza and use the crust recipe my mom always used. Thought I'd share here if you are interested:

    1 c. lukewarm water
    1 pkg. yeast
    1 tsp. sugar
    1 tsp. salt
    1 tbsp. oil
    1 1/2 c. flour, TWICE

    Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water and let stand 5 minutes. Stir and add remaining ingredients except flour. Beat well. Add flour and beat until smooth. Add second 1 1/2 c. flour (I often add by 1/2 cups and end up using just 1 additional cup), until the dough is barely firm enough to handle. (You can also experiment with using whole-wheat flour for part.) Knead until smooth. Flatten, pull and stretch to fit into lightly greased pan (fits my jelly roll pan nicely or can be divided up into smaller-size pizzas). Let rise 15 mins. (I skip the rising when in a hurry and it's still great.) Add toppings and bake 20-25 mins. at 425 degrees.

    Takes a bit of practice, but you'll be a pro in no time! Thanks for all that you share on your blog!

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  4. Crystal Paine over at MoneySavingMom.com has a GREAT pizza crust recipe. I like it cause it's really easy to work with and I can sneak in whole wheat flour without it tasting "healthy".
    Thank you for the ideas for family night - it seems so much harder to do when they are little, but I really appreciate the reminder that it's still important!
    PS - I've almost finished my first busy book :)

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