Any Prego people out there?

When it comes to spaghetti sauce, we are 100% Prego lovin' people.  I've tried Ragu and even tried to like Ragu, especially since it's generally cheaper.  But it just doesn't work.  So I try to buy Prego whenever it's on sale, but it doesn't seem to go on sale often enough (and I really don't run across many coupons for it, either) to keep up with our usage.  A few months ago I tried a homemade recipe for spaghetti sauce in the crock pot.  Yuck.  So the other day I looked for a "Copycat Prego Recipe" and this is what I found.  It was easy and tasted EXACTLY like Prego, in my opinion!!  And when I figured it up, using the tomato sauce and paste I bought from Aldi (for about $.25 a piece) and the crushed tomatoes I bought on sale with coupons, I got about 3 1/2 times the sauce for the cost of Prego!  

This comes from http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf248558.tip.html, but I copied and pasted because there are several other things on the website.

RE: Prego Spaghetti Receipe

By Ted Williams (Guest Post)

Copycat Prego Spaghetti Sauce

4 T olive oil
2 large minced garlic clove
1 onion, very finely chopped
2 t dried basil
2 t dried parsley
1 t ground black pepper
1 t dried oregano
2 t salt
2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 (28 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1/4 c granulated sugar

Heat oil over medium low heat. Add garlic. Stir and cook until golden brown. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Add onion and cook until soft and golden, stirring frequently. Add seasonings and tomato products. Slowly bring to the boil at a medium high heat. Let boil for 10 minutes, covered. Reduce to lowest heat. Cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Yield: 12 cups

Letter L

Here are some ideas for the letter L:

• Leaf ideas - jump in a leaf pile (if it's fall), gather leaves and glue on a piece of paper, put a leaf underneath a piece of white paper and use the side of a crayon to rub over the paper, make a leaf placemat by putting leaves on a piece of paper and putting the paper between two pieces of contact paper (this takes careful work!), gather leaves and sort by size or color.
• Print off a picture of a lamb (find some at http://www.coloring.ws/coloring.html) and glue cotton balls on it.
• Make a ladybug with two paper plates.  Cut one plate in half (good time to practice scissors skills with your toddler/preschooler!).  Color the halves red and the whole one black.  Use a brad to attach the tops of the halves to the top of the black plate to give the ladybug wings.  Add a head with black construction paper and antenna with black pipe cleaner.  Cut out (or punch out if you have a fancy scrapbooking circle puncher) black circles from construction paper and let your child glue them on.  Or, if you don't have black paper, draw circles on the wings and let your child color them (or let your child draw them if they're ready!).

 

• Have your child help with the laundry!  My kids like to help put the clothes in the washer or dryer.  They're not so helpful with the folding...
• Read stories about lions.  Then roar like lions!
• Make lilies with paper and pipe cleaner.  Trace your child's hand on several pieces of construction paper.  Cut out the hands and curl the palms of 1 or 2 hands tightly around a piece of pipe cleaner so that you can staple once through the paper and pipe cleaner (stem).  Then curl the fingers out.

Letter K

I do wish it would have been spring for K week because I haven't flown a kite for a very long time.  I think the last time was at my grandparents' farm in a field.  Brings back many fond memories!  Needless to say, we will most definitely be flying a kite the first warm windy day that comes this year!  Here are some of the activities we did for K week and some additional ideas:

•  Fly a kite :) Or make a kite out of a large sheet of paper and either dowel rods, craft sticks, straws, etc. for the cross section.  Let your kids decorate the paper however they want and with whatever you can think of!
• Kick some balls around the yard.
• Make a kaleidoscope with a toilet paper or paper towel tube.  We didn't do this because after looking at several instructions online, I felt it was too difficult for Asher.  But they looked really cool!  Just do a search for a homemade kaleidoscope on Google and you will get lots of ideas!
• Make a kangaroo. Again, lots of ideas online for ways to make a craft kangaroo, but I used a simple one with a pattern to cut out and glue.  Asher got practice using stick glue and had so much fun that he wanted to make three.  We sent them to Aunt Kristy and Aunt Katie :)  Here's the link to the one we made: http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mpaperkangaroo.htm.

 

• Watch videos of kangaroos on YouTube.  Then hop like them!
• Continuing with the kangaroo theme, you can make an easy "pouch" with 2 paper plates.  Cut one in half and staple it on the whole one (around the circle part) so that you have an opening.  Staple the ends of a piece of string to the paper plate and put it around your child's neck like a necklace.  Make sure it hangs so that the "pouch" is on their stomach.  Now they can carry things in their "pouch"!  Don't forget to let them decorate it :)
• Make a crown with paper.  Let your child decorate it and tape or staple it together around your child's head and declare them a king!  If you want, you can put a blanket around their shoulders for their robe and give them a scepter :)  Tell a grand tale about your kingly child!
• Kittens - play with kittens, pretend to be kittens, watch "Kittens Inspired by Kittens" on YouTube, whatever you want!
• This isn't specific to the letter K, but whenever we learn a letter, I always connect the sound to the visual of the letter.  So we always talk about what the letter says.  There are a million ways to practice letters, but one thing I did this week was get a large piece of paper and write a huge bubble K on it.  Asher painted inside the K and around it.  You could get pictures of things that start with K and have them stick them inside the K or trace it with their finger or a marker.

Letters I and J

Okay, so the letter "i" was really difficult for me to think of activities, partly because from letter "i" to now, we have been really busy and I didn't have much time to think!  That is why I am joining letters I and J!

Letter I activities:

•  Insects - look at insects with a magnifying glass.  Capture them and put them in a bug catcher (look online for instructions on how to make a bug catcher! - the easiest one that I used to do as a kid is a clear jar with holes punched in the lid).  Make an insect out of paper - I got this pattern from http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/insects.htm and used the "B is for Bee" link.
• Inside/outside - we have a turkey blind that is somewhat broken (or at least unable to use while hunting, according to my husband, who had to buy another one).  It's huge and like a really big and fun tent.  It just pops up!  So we popped it up in the kitchen and went inside the tent, then outside the tent!  Asher had a blast!
• Ice - do lots of ice experiments - put an ice cube in warm water and one in cold water.  Which melts faster?  Put an ice cube outside on a warm day and time how long it takes to melt.  Freeze some colored ice cubes with food coloring (use primary colors - red, blue and yellow).  Melt the red and yellow together and predict what color the water will be.  Do the same with red and blue, and blue and yellow.
• Make some ice cream - there are tons of homemade ice cream recipes.  Use an ice cream maker, an old crank ice cream maker, or just some easy ice cream in a ziplock bag.  Look online for lots of ideas!  Look at my other blog post for a snow ice cream recipe!
• Igloo - make an igloo with sugar cubes and frosting.  Just build with brick (sugar cubes) and mortar (frosting)!

Letter J activities:

• Make a jellyfish - I found this idea in Family Fun magazine.  Just take an old fruit cup (the clear plastic kind) and poke a hole in the top.  I used a small nail and gently hammered it in.  This was kind of hard for me, so my hole looked more like a broken top.  But it still worked.  I would probably suggest putting the cup right side up so the bottom is against a piece of wood before hammering a hole.  Then it might not break as much.  Anyway, then you take pieces of blue tissue paper and modpodge it around the inside of the cup.  Then take several shades of blue yarn and ribbon, all cut to relatively the same length, and tie a large knot at the top.  Put the knot in the cup and pull one string through the hole.  Hang up with that string!
• Jump in various places.  Discuss how it feels different to jump on the bed or couch versus the floor or grass.
• Jump in the leaves - if it's fall!
• Make Jello Jigglers
• Eat jelly on something
• Teach your child a knock-knock joke