Top 10 Toddler Girl Toys of 2014

   Time really flies by fast and Christmas is just 7 weeks away from today.  So, for the next 7 weeks, each Thursday, up until Christmas time, I am going to be posting the Top Gifts for 2014.  This week we will be highlighting the Top Toddler Girl Gifts of 2014.

  Top Gifts for Toddlers for 2014

Disney "Frozen" toys

   The biggest movie for kids last year by far, was "Frozen" and kids are still in love with the movie and anything related to it.  Here are the top recommended "Frozen" gifts for every budget.

1.  "Frozen" lunch box/carry all.  $6.72.

2.  "Spot it--Frozen Alphabet".  $11.85.  Elsa & Anna help to teach kids how to match letters.  Great educational toy that teaches kids about the alphabet in a fun way.

3.  Disney "Olaf"  pillow.  $15.19.  Who wouldn't want to snuggle with Olaf? 

4.  Disney Frozen Dress Up Trunk.  $24.99.  This trunk comes with 20 pieces including 2 dresses, 2 headbands, 2 necklaces, rings, & bracelets.  36 months-6 years.

5.  My First Disney Princess Frozen Snow Glow Elsa Singing Doll.  $49.95.  Just touch Elsa's snowflake necklace to hear Elsa talk and watch the magic as her dress lights up and twinkles.  Raise her arm and she sings "Let it Go".  Dress lights up, she sings the hit song "Let it Go" and says 15 different phrases.

Misc. Toddler Girl Toys

6.  Woofer Guitar.  $20.99.  Comes with 3 play modes:  acoustic, electric, or puppy mode. 8 musical buttons and plays 20 sing-a-long favorites.

7.  Pink Bilibo.  $26.95.  This toy is amazing and pretty much every child loves them.  It is a rocking chair, a spinning top, a cradle, and a tunnel all in one toy. Award winning.

8.  Hansel & Gretel Toy House and Book.  $30.00  Let your young child "unplug" and play as you read the book "Hansel & Gretel" to them.  It comes with the storybook, toy house, 5 dolls, furniture, and carrying case.  You put it together like you would a 3D puzzle.  Hours of fun.

9.  FurReal Friends Baby Panda.  $37.49.  An exciting, fun, and engaging toy.  Pet her, talk to her, shake her rattle, or give her the bottle.  She will respond by walking, crawling, talking and by making feeding sounds.

10.  Big Hugs Elmo.  $49.99.  Everyone's favorite Sesame Street character is back again this year but this year he is "Big Hugs Elmo". Elmo likes getting hugs but this year, he can also give you a hug back!  Press Elmo's left foot and Elmo invites your child to engage in one of four different activities.  50 plus animated sounds and phrases and 3 songs. 

    Next Thursday, I will share the Top 10 Toddler Boy Toys of 2014.  Be sure to stop back by then!

Many of the links you see above lead to my "Amazon" store Countrified Hicks.  Ordering items from my store does not cost you a penny extra but I do receive a very small percentage as a bonus from Amazon for being an affiliate.  We appreciate your support.  It helps out our family more than you may know.

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Dehydrating Yellow Squash

      Hello.  My name is Melody.  I like to dehydrate.  (Imitating an admission at a support group.)  It's true.  It's almost a compulsion.  If it can be dehydrated, you better believe that I will try to dehydrate.  I'm up to the challenge.  If you have been reading my posts you know that I even dehydrate watermelon, eggs, & milk.  If it is a fruit, a vegetable, an herb, or any kind of liquid (sauce, etc.) I WILL dehydrate it.

        I love to dehydrate; in fact, I prefer dehydrating over canning.  I used to can about everything but it took a lot of time, effort and energy and the jars take up a lot of space.  I have learned that dehydrating preserves the food just as well and takes up a lot less space.  For instance, to can 10 pounds of potatoes would take up a bunch of quart jars (you can only get 2-3 potatoes per jar).  But I can dehydrate 10 pounds of potatoes and they fit into 3 jars is all.

   To dehydrate yellow squash, just wash the squash and cut off the ends.  Once the ends are cut off, use a mandolin (on the thickest setting) and slice the squash into rounds.

     You do not need to boil the squash.  It will retain its color just fine.  Also, some blogs recommend that you put some oil on the squash but this makes the squash taste awful and turn rancid.  Once it is sliced, just place the pieces on your dehydrator trays.

  
      Turn on the dehydrator and let the squash dehydrate about 10 hours.  I just turn my dehydrator on right before I go to bed and the squash are ready the next morning.  Once dehydrated just store the squash chips in a mason jar.

    To use, you can eat these as a snack as they are or use them in stews, soups, casseroles, etc.  To reconstitute, just place in very hot water for about 10 minutes or add to your favorite recipe and cook the dish as you normally would. Or fry it up and have fried squash.  Just soak in hot water for a few minutes and fry as you would fresh squash.

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The Gathering Spot

Making Sassafras Powder with Sassafras Leaves

   Sassafras is a really neat tree and is easily identifiable because of its distinct feature that every tree has 3 distinctly different leaves.

The three distinct leaves of the Sassafras tree.

  Sassafras has long been known as a medicinal herb used by American Indians for hundreds of years.   The leaves, roots and oils of the Sassafras can all be used for a variety of conditions.  Today, I am going to cover one way we harvest and use the Sassafras leaves.  We turn them to powder and use it as many people do in Creole cooking.

     When Sassafras leaves are dried and ground up into powder, it is called file' or gumbo file' which is a thickener for soups and gumbos and to add flavor to them.  It adds a bit of a spicy flavor.  Just add it in once you begin to simmer your soup or gumbo.  It is best not to boil it but let the flavors emerge from simmering.

     To make the powder, just gather up a few handfuls of leaves and rinse them off.  Pat dry and lay them on them on your dehydrator trays.  Turn on the dehydrator and let the leaves dehydrate for about 4 hours.  Once they are dry, they crumble very easily.  Place them in a food processor or use a Magic Bullet (like I do) and pulse the leaves until they turn into a fine powder.  Pour into a mason jar and store the Sassafras powder until you are ready to use it.

Sassafras powder (aka gumbo file')

Check out my Jambalaya Recipe too!

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Making Spinach Powder

        Spinach is such a powerful and useful vegetable.  It has great nutritional value but it also can be used medicinally.  My problem is that I don't really care for the taste of spinach.  Spinach is easy to grow so we do grow it in our garden but then I dehydrate it and turn it into spinach powder to be used in soups, stews, smoothies, casseroles, stir-fry, sauces, or put it into a gel capsule and take as a vitamin.  Also, dehydrating and grinding spinach to power does not diminish its nutritional value at all.  :-)

 

   To make spinach powder is quite easy.  First, rinse off your spinach leaves and lay the leaves on your dehydrator trays.

 

 

  

Turn on your dehydrator and let the leaves dry for about 4-5 hours.  They are done when the leaves are brittle.  

 

   Take the dried leaves and place them in your Magic Bullet or a blender and pulse until it turns into a fine powder.  You may have to strain the pieces through a sieve a few times to make sure the leaves are all ground up.

   Store your powder in a mason jar.  When you want to use it, just add a tablespoon or two to your dish to add nutritional value, taste and color.  

 

 

I also dehydrate lettuce and collard greens!  

 

 

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Complete Chicken Dinner in the Crock Pot

    

    I love using my crock pot.  Okay, let's be honest, I have two crock pots and I use them all the time, often both at the same time.  Cooking meals in a crock pot just makes sense.  Very little prep work; you don't heat up your house; you can put food on when you go to bed and it is ready for lunch the next day; or better yet, put a meal in the crock pot in the morning before work and come home to supper waiting on you.

      Meals in crockpots do not have to be elaborate.  Because the food slow cooks all day (or night) the flavors have a chance to "meld" together and comes out fantastic.  This is one of those meals.

Complete Chicken Dinner in the Crock Pot

 4 chicken quarters or breasts

1 stick of butter

1 T. chopped onions

2 cans of green beans

4 potatoes (sliced or cubed)

poultry seasoning

water

    Place your potatoes into the crockpot.  Put the stick of margarine on top of the potatoes.

  As you can tell, I used some of my dehydrated potatoes instead.  If you use them, you do not need to soak them first.  Put them in and they will soften and cook perfectly this way.

Drain the green beans and pour onto the potatoes.  

  Pour enough water in the pot to cover the potatoes.  Place the chicken in last and season them with a bit of poultry seasoning; put the lid on the crock pot and turn it on low. 

  Let it cook 8 hours or overnight.  I have let it cook up to 14 hours and it was still perfect.                

Other good Crock Pot recipes I have shared include:  Pot Roast, Cube Steak, Ribs, and Swiss Steak in the Crock Pot!

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Making Tomato Powder

   We love growing tomatoes in our garden.  Tomatoes are one of the easiest things to grow, at least around here, and we always harvest so many of them.  I can a lot of them and I also make spaghetti sauce and extra hot salsa.  We eat fresh tomatoes with meals but there are still plenty left over.  This year, I decided to make Sun Dried Tomatoes to help preserve them so we have tomatoes through out the year.  They turned out beautifully. 

     I also decided to make up some tomato powder.  Tomato powder is pretty expensive to buy.  It runs about $8.00-$15.00 a pound but you can make it for free with your excess tomatoes.  If you have never used tomato powder, you are missing out.  Tomato powder really adds a lot of flavor to soups, stews, casseroles, etc.  If you need to add tomato paste or tomato sauce to a recipe, you can reconstitute the tomato powder and make your own paste or sauce.  If you need tomato paste, just add 1-2 parts water to 1 part paste.  For tomato sauce, use four parts water to one part tomato powder.

    One of the best things about tomato powder is it is a great way to preserve tomatoes, the nutritional value does not diminish and just a heaping tablespoon of tomato powder equals about a pint of fresh tomatoes (when it comes to adding taste and flavor to a dish).

    How to Make Tomato Powder

      Take fresh from the garden tomatoes or tomatoes you have purchased.  Cut off the ends of the tomato and using a sharp knife or mandolin, slice your tomatoes.  I like to slice my tomatoes fairly thick.  I found a bit thicker cut the tomatoes, the easier they are to remove off the trays.  If they are cut real thin, they have a tendency to stick to the tray.  I never spray my trays with cooking spray or oil because oil causes the fruit or vegetable to turn rancid.  
  
  Lay your sliced tomatoes onto your dehydrator tray.   

  Turn on your dehydrator and let the tomatoes dry until they are brittle and no moisture remains (anywhere from 12-18 hours).

   Now take the dried tomatoes and place in your Magic Bullet or spice grinder.  Turn it on and "pulse" the tomatoes until they turn into a fine powder.

 Store in a mason jar.  Kept in your pantry, they have a shelf life up to 15 years.

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Blogs that I have shared this post with include:
The Chicken Chick 
Create with Joy 
Trayer Wilderness 
Love in the Kitchen 
Tilly's Nest
The Gathering Spot
Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth
Home to 4 Kiddos
The Backyard Farming Connection 
Hope in Every Season 
Graced Simplicity
Carole's Chatter 

Brieftons InstantVeg Spiralizer

 

 

 

    Brieftons InstantVeg Spiralizer is very cool.  I really wasn't too sure about it when I first heard about it but it is FUN to use and it is a great way to get my kids to eat more veggies.  It also makes meals fancier.  :-)
    It really is amazing how it turns plain vegetables into culinary spirals.  There are 4 different cutting widths and the handle is very easy to turn.  
    

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.