Natural Homemade Living

It's grilling season in the Midwest so I wanted to share my twice baked potato shortcut with you. This method is faster than baking the potatoes first and is perfect for entertaining or serving at family grill night! Ingredients and Directions: 4 potatoes, I use russets 1 c Greek yogurt 1/3 c ranch dressing or your favorite dressing 1/3 c milk 1 c grated cheese, Colby-Jack or your favorite, and a little extra for topping at the end Optional: bacon pieces, onions, finely diced peppers Wash and dry your potatoes. Poke small holes in each potato using a fork. Wrap in wax paper or a paper towel and microwave on high for about 10 minutes. You will need to adjust this time based on the number of potatoes you are making.  Let the potatoes cool just until you can handle them and cut each potato in half lengthwise. Carefully scrape out the middle and place in a medium size bowl. Using an electric beater, beat on low until the potato insides are mashed.

If you have a toddler in your house you know it can sometimes be a challenge to find a craft project for them to do. This is a fun Easter or Spring project for kids of any age, but especially the little ones.  All you need are some cotton balls, glue and construction paper. You could also use something heavier like card stock, if you have it. I drew and cutout the bunny shape-you can use any shape, it turns out...toddlers don't really care! If they are older, they can cut out the shape themselves. Put a little white glue on a paper plate, plastic lid or whatever you have, and let them dip the cotton in the glue (you will go through quite a lot of glue, I just kept adding to it, instead of having one big puddle). You can also tear the cotton balls to make them go farther, or better yet, have them tear the cotton. This is a good project for building necessary preschool skills, like hand eye coordination and dexterity. Which helps them later on with reading and writing. Remember, it