A school project and homemade baked beans!

Creative Output 

A fine motor skills activity

Creative Input - cook book challenge

Homemade and Fast Baked Beans

Who is the king of all crafts?

The Ruler!

Today I made a sensory board to improve my students fine motor skills.  Nursery school starts at the end of the month!First I bought a handful of zippers and one didn't have a 'stopper' so I added a piece of duck tape to the bottom so it won't zip apart.

Then I pinned the zippers to a piece of cream colored fabric and sewed them down.

I should have pinned them more because a couple of them buckled.

I tried to iron out as many of the wrinkles as I could - not that this matters to 2 and 3 year old's.  I have a toy iron and ironing board in the classroom - most of them ask "what is this?"!

I cut out a piece of poster board

taped the zippered fabric to the back

and then using the cork Contact paper from my coaster project (see 8/7/14 post)

I attached the cork to cover the tape and add another layer of stability.

and voila! 

I realize now that I am going to have to make at least one more.  If one child is playing with this, another child is going to want it!

Creative Input - will it make it into the new cookbook challenge?

My family loves baked beans.  I find the canned variety too saucy and too salty.  I saved this recipe from Cooking Light magazine back in July 2013 (believe me, that's not the oldest recipe I've got to audition!) I thought it might be a good baked bean replacement.  They had me at "How fast is fast?  These baked beans are ready in 31 mins!"  Got to love that!

True to their name - it was fast!  

Probably because of the bacon the fat and calories are about the same as the canned variety (150 calories, 1-2 grams of fat) but the sodium difference was staggering 550 mg for the canned and only 296 mg of sodium from this recipe.  And these taste really good!

I am never going to bore you with step by step photo's in the cooking process - unless it comes with a tip!

Kitchen scissors

are the best tool in the kitchen.  I used these for cutting up the bacon, way easier than using a knife and they come apart for better clean up.  I use scissors (one for meat only) for flattening a chicken, cutting herbs, and even slicing pizza!

I found this to be way easier than a pizza cutter.

Quick Classic Baked Beans

Cooking Light magazine July 2013

hands on time: 21 mins  total time: 31 mins

6 center cut bacon slices, chopped

1 cup finely chopped onion

3 thyme sprigs

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup fat free, lower sodium chicken broth

1/3/ cup packed dark brown sugar

1 Tbsp prepared mustard

1/2 tsp kosher salt 

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

3 (15 oz) cans organic navy beans, drained

1 (8 oz) can of unsalted tomato sauce

1.  Preheat broiler to high

2.  Cook bacon in a 10 inch cast iron skillet over medium high heat until crisp.  Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, reserve drippings.  Add onion and thyme sprigs to drippings in pan; saute 3 mins.  Add garlic; saute 1 min.  Stir in broth and remaining ingredients; reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered, 10 mins or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally.  Discard thyme.

3.  Remove from heat; stir in bacon.  Broil 4 mins or until bubbly and edges are crusty.

four stars and it's going to be saved to the new cookbook!  My family loved this side dish!  

I don't think it photographs well - but it was so tasty.  Very rich and creamy and with a wonderful flavor.  I think this is going to be a family favorite with burgers or hot dogs from the grill.

Don't forget to leave your thyme sprigs whole for easy removal!

Pam