GUEST POST | Nancy Parker

Quick & Frugal Meals for Busy Families
When you’re part of a busy family – and what family isn’t busy these days – having fast, affordable meals is crucial. After all, who really has time these days to spend hours in the kitchen slaving over a meal? And then even if you did have time to fix an elaborate meal you probably don’t have time to actually sit down and enjoy it! These five meal options will make dinner come together in no time so that everyone can attend their after school or work functions and activities and still enjoy a good dinner:
1.    Lasagna – Lasagna is one of those versatile meals that you can add as little or as much as you want to it, but the essentials are just cheese, pasta sauce, and lasagna noodles. From there you can add meat or vegetables as you see fit. It’s an easy dish to prepare ahead of time so all you have to do is pop it in the oven once you get home, and since it makes such a large quantity it will last for days. Plus, everyone knows lasagna leftovers just keep getting better!

2.    Quesadillas – Another meal that requires minimal ingredients and comes together quickly is quesadillas. Tortillas, cheese, beans, and salsa make for a fast and easy quesadilla. Depending on what your family likes you could use chicken or steak, or even put a different twist on it by using spinach, mushrooms, and avocado. Fill your quesadilla with what you want and then cook on the stove, browning each side.

3.    Baked potatoes – Potatoes tend to get a bad rap because they typically take a while to cook when you’re baking them in the oven. But piercing them with a fork and zapping them in the microwave cuts down the cook time to a mere 10 minutes. Top with your favorite toppings and dinner has come together in no time at all.

4.    Freezer meals – Freezer meals are perfect for busy families because you can take just one day to prep a ton of meals. Once the meals are prepped stick them in the freezer and the next time you have a busy day ahead of you just pull it out the night before or in the morning so that it will defrost throughout the day. By the time everyone is home all you’ll need to do is heat it up.

5.    Crockpot meals – It’s hard to go wrong with a good Crockpot meal, and the fact that almost anything comes together in the Crockpot makes it an easy way to serve up a hot and delicious meal with little effort. Just set it and forget it!
A lot of seemingly difficult meals can come together in a flash with a little early prep work or by using the microwave or Crockpot instead of the oven. Just because you’re short on time doesn’t mean your meals have to fall short as well.

Author Bio
Nancy Parker was a professional nanny and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like health, Parenting, Child Care, and Babysitting, find a nanny tips etc. You can reach her @ nancy.parker015 @ gmail.com.

Guest Post from Jenny Ellis

5 Cheap, Fun Crafts for Kids

Doing crafts with kids doesn’t have to be messy, expensive or hard. There are plenty of fun things that you and your child can create without a lot of work or money. Here are five fun and esy crafts for your kids to create.

1. Mess-Free Finger Painting–You’ll need some paint, tape, and zip-top sandwich bags for this one. Simply put two glops of paint inside a sandwich bag, seal tightly, and tape to a window or glass door. The kids can ‘paint’ and mix through the bag. Teach them about color and what combinations make what, and all this with no clean up! Just throw away the bag after it starts to harden.

2. Magnet Faces – All this one takes is some paper, a glue stick, and a sheet of magnets. Simply have your child draw eyes, lips, ears, etc. Then glue a magnet to the back of the face parts and give them a place to stick them. Even a cookie sheet will work. Have kids make all sorts of funny faces and even monster faces with their drawings! This also works with felt.
   
   
   
   

3. Make Your Own Stamps–You’ll need some foam stickers and foam blocks for this one. Super easy. All you do is adhere the stickers to the bottom of the block and, voila, you just made a stamp. Pair that with some washable ink in fun colors (even markers will work) and some paper and you’ll kids will love it.

4. Shoebox Guitars – This one is super easy. Just get various sizes of rubber bands and a few boxes. Shoeboxes work best. Have kids wrap the rubber bands around them and then see what tone the bands make. They can fool around until they get the set up they like, and then play their instruments. Best of all, it never gets too loud!

 

5.Felt Decorating – Depending on your child’s interests and the time of year, this can be a great craft to keep them entertained for hours. A large piece of felt can be cut into a Christmas tree, farm, or racetrack shape and attached to the wall. Then kids can design and cut out their own felt decorations, animals, or vehicles to attach and play with. Very creative and can be used over and over again!

Jenny Ellis is a freelance writer, and a regular contributor for aupair jobs. She welcomes your comments at: ellisjenny728 @ gmail.com.