Think Breakfast

Posted on June 27, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

Yesterday was my daughter’s last day as a Kindergartener! It’s definitely amazing how I can feel as if time flew on by, but at the same time the jitters and anxiety over the first day of school are still fresh in my mind. Like they say, “it was just yesterday…”, and that’s how I’m feeling. With time, the unknown (school/Kindergarten) became familiar, but now we’re full circle and back to the unknown (1st grade). I say unknown because I have absolutely no recollection of my time in the early years of school and this is my first kid entering the school system, so there you go. Now, I can only hope that some of her new friends are placed in her new class and she’s given a great teacher like the one she had before, whom by the way I want to thank once again for writing a lovely message in my daughter’s Dr. Seuss “Oh, the places you’ll go! ” book. Her message made me cry because it was so nice of her and I couldn’t wait to show it to Olivia. I did debate on whether or not to keep the book and its messages a secret for a great surprise in the future, but then I don’t think the memory of each teacher would be fresh. At the end of every school year I’m going to do my best to get a personal message from each teacher written in that book just for Olivia. It’s a great idea and I knew once I heard about it that I was going to do it. I’m very happy that I did.

Changing subjects and making the title of this post relevant, I wanted to share with you a great program that was introduced to my daughter at school. It brings awareness to eating a healthy breakfast. There’s even a song and dance called “Think Breakfast,” which Olivia performed with her class at her school during their annual festival dance. She also received a water bottle and a pedometer (promoting hydration and exercise). The pedometer was a hit with Olivia. It simply fascinated her that this little gizmo could count her steps. Of course, she put it to the test by walking around our apartment and stopping every so often to see the latest number.

Olivia: What number is this?

Me: Two hundred and fifty-eight

Olivia: Whaaaat? That’s a really big number.

Me: It sure is. You’re walking a lot.

Olivia: I want to walk until it says 1 mile. What number is that?

Me: Ten thousand, one, zero, zero, zero, zero.

Olivia: Whaaaat?

🙂

Check out the website for recipes, videos, activity pages, and games. I had both girls watching the video, learning the dance steps and singing the song. A funny and wonderful memory just for me.

http://www.thinkbreakfast.com/

Take good care all.

Until next time…

To my firstborn

Posted on June 7, 2013 by themercadoproject

To my firstborn,

Every day I walk by your baby picture and

I’m amazed at how much you have grown.

Today, you’re an official 6-year-old.

Time rushes by and before you get any older

please let me describe what I see in this moment.

You’re a magnificent little artist,

who uses her imagination beyond and then some.

You just started learning how to read and

you’re tapping out words left and right.

You’re also writing up a storm, asking us how

you spell this or that or once upon a time.

Your yuk yuk laugh is infectious and a lovely sound to hear.

You love to learn new songs and you sing them at full blast.

Your little sister can belt out “America the beautiful”

because you’re a wonderful big sister/teacher.

I will continue to watch you with amazement

because you are my world, my heart, my firstborn.

Angelica Mercado

___________________________________________________________________

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

My daughter celebrated her 6^th birthday today. She was very excited and the night before I decorated our living room with balloons and banners.

This number 6 balloon is huge and I also had a big butterfly (just because). I ordered the balloon banner when Olivia was about 3 years old so it is a good reusable banner. I made two Super Mario Banners (theme) and came upon the stars at the dollar section at Target. I just drew in the eyes with a sharpie marker. I also put up three tissue paper pom-pom balls (again, just because).

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?vid=1&pid=484345002

I ordered and gave my daughter this T-shirt from Old Navy so she could wear it to school and she loved it. She jumped into my arms and gave me a big ol’ hug. You’re welcome my darling.

At school my daughter handed out little treat bags filled with a small coloring page with the number 6, gummy snacks, a raisin box, pretzels, and mini marshmallows to her classmates and teacher. She later informed me that she had a great day at school. Always great to hear!

While my daughter was at school, I was busy at home baking a cake for her and wrapping her gifts. I purchased the Super Mario and friends figures at Amazon and I found this cute wrapping paper at the dollar section at Target. The bows were made using this great bow tutorial http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-make-paper-bow.html by Jessica Jones.

We had a wonderful dinner followed by singing Happy Birthday to Olivia and eating great cake. She got to open her gifts, which included books, a great Spider-Man T-shirt, and LeapFrog headphones. This little girl was beyond happy and I’m very happy to have given her a great day.

Happy 6th Birthday Olivia!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Cucumbers and cookie cutters

Posted on May 13, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

I had a wonderful Mother’s day with my whole family. I was gifted (by my husband) a, wait for it, SCOOTER! Yup, an adult size scooter. It’s pretty awesome. I tested it out for a little while before heading out to my mom’s house. I almost fell, but gained control and hopped back on it. I can’t wait to scoot some more with my girls and my hubby. It’s an unconventional gift, but it sure beats receiving a vacuum or blender. 🙂 I was also gifted a beautiful MOM necklace from http://www.lisaleonardonline.com/mama-necklace-P187C104.aspx. by my hubby and my girls. All and all, I had a great day.

Changing subjects so the title of this post makes sense, I came across this pin on Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/pin/101753272802560641/

My daughter loves cucumbers and I have a small heart shape cookie cutter so of course after seeing this idea, I had to try it out!

As soon as I did it, I showed my daughter and she gasped at seeing the heart-shaped cucumbers. The next day after school, she told me that her friends loved them as well and were asking her who made them, at which she proudly said, “my mom!” Thank u to whoever came up with this idea. I know it’s not rocket science, but it’s cute and it made my little girl happy and it’s those little things that count the most for me.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

JELL-O NO BAKE OREO DESSERT

Posted on April 22, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well. My, ever-curious-with-food, husband came home two weeks ago with this Jell-O No Bake Oreo Dessert. NOT exactly healthy, but worth trying, at least once. All you need to add is butter and cold milk.

Inside the box you get the crust, filling, and crushed Oreo topping.

First you mix the crust with the butter (melted) and press down into the pan. I used a spoon.

After mixing the filling with the milk, you add half of the crushed Oreo topping. Whenever I’m baking and I want to get every single drop of the batter, I always use a silicon spatula. This gets EVERYTHING out of the bowl! 🙂

Then you pour into your pan and refrigerate for an hour or more. You can use the rest of the crushed Oreo topping immediately after pouring it into the pan or if you want it to be crunchy, pour it on after refrigerating it. I did the latter.

The dessert was good, but personally it was too sweet for me so I’m not going to be making it again. I definitely prefer the Jell-O Lemon Meringue Pie Dessert that I featured in a previous post.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

A glance at last weeks school lunch from home

Posted on April 17, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well.

Here’s a glance at what I made/put together for my daughter, last week, for her school lunch. We try our best to send her off to school with a nutritious, balanced meal. I’m glad to say that there are more days where her food containers come home empty.

I try not to repeat the main dishes, but if I have to it’s usually the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or the pizza bagels, which are my daughter’s faves. I give her nuggets once a week because we all know process food is not exactly healthy. I also abide by the recommended serving sizes. In regards to the serving size for the nuggets I take one away (serving size is 5 nuggets, but I give her 4) because I also give her tater tots (serving size is 9, but I give her 6). It’s all about moderation, plus including the veggies and fruits that we need.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Celebration Recap

Posted on April 15, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well.

My youngest daughter is officially three and we had a birthday week-end celebration with friends and family. We broke things down by celebrating her actual birthday on Friday, just us in the house. I wanted to make a small (I like the Jiffy cake mix), funfetti cake

and it was the perfect time to try out these Bake-Even Cake Strips (Wilton) that I’ve seen online and found on sale at AC Moore craft store.

I didn’t realize I went overboard on the sprinkles until…

…the cake was done and I flipped it out of the baking pan.

As you can see the cake strip (around the pan) worked, but there were noticeable differences other than the cake dome that appears when you don’t use this strip. The cake sticks to the side of the pan more and the bottom was moist when I took it out. I like that it baked even, but I don’t know if I’m going to use the strip again. We’ll see.

I melted a little bit of the Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Chocolate frosting (15 seconds in the microwave) in a glass bowl and this made things easy to spread on the cake. I really don’t like when the cake crumbs combine with the frosting. I threw a little bit more of sprinkles, yes more, on the frosting and then…

…the #3 candle. My daughter loved her funfetti cake.

I chose the theme of the cartoon Bubble Guppies featured on Nickelodeon. I decorated with free printables from nickjr.com and purchased a huge #3 balloon. Balloons are always a huge hit.

The banner, poster, and pin the tail game were cute, easy, and fun to put together. Just go to nickjr.com and click on birthdays and you’ll see all of the themes and projects available for each.

The following day was Saturday and we invited friends and family with kids to join us at an indoor playground/arcade (funtopiausa.com). We paid for the kids admission, tokens for them to play the arcade games, and food (pizza, popcorn, and drinks). We stayed for about two hours and when it was time to go I gave each invited guest a goody box filled with candy, toys and stickers.

My aunt had given me these boxes about a year ago and I was so happy to finally have a reason to use them. I glued the images of the Bubble Guppies, which I printed out at nickjr.com, and made the middle image with my daughter’s name. I then took the glitter glue in blue and green and made swirl lines like waves on the boxes. I then filled the boxes with candy (skittles, smarties, Tootsie rolls, lollipop, rose ring pop, candy bracelet, and sixlets) from orientaltrading.com along with little toys like a mushroom spinning top (not shown) and Easter Pop-Ups, which are a lot of fun for children and adults.

We ended the day with my husband’s homemade piñata, which he made with a balloon, scraps of paper, and modge podge.

My husband had fun making this and the kids had a lot more fun whacking the heck out of it.

On our last day of celebration (Sunday), my family came over and we sang happy birthday once again with another cake (Oreo No Bake Dessert), chocolate lollipops (vanilla, dark mint, & peanut butter), and great, homemade food. Thanks Mom and my aunt Aida!

I was pretty happy with this plan of action for celebrating my daughter’s birthday. Many people get really stressed out planning birthdays and end up spending a lot of money. I didn’t want the headaches or the empty wallet. No offense to anyone who goes big, because of course, if I had space and extra money, I would be singing a different tune, but at this moment minimal is the way to go. So one birthday down, one more to go.

Take good care all and thanks for visiting.

Until next time…

A glance at today’s school lunch from home

Posted on April 8, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well. Many thanks to those who liked my happy faces lunch. I do enjoy making them for my daughters. I wanted to share how I make my oldest daughter’s lunch for school. At first, I was very scared of what I would pack for her since I’ve never packed a lunch before and I wanted to send her off to school with food that was healthy and, of course, that she liked. This is what I packed for her today:

I try to do as much as I can the night before. When I’m making her Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches, I basically prep the bread by cutting the crust with a Good Bites cutter (yellow thingy above in the pic), then I seal it away in the sandwich container. I do the same for the veggies. I cut and place in the fridge. In the morning I put the PB&J on the bread and a little bit of salad dressing on the veggies. I also cut a piece of banana and put some peanut butter on it. This is one of her faves. I also include a snack like goldfish crackers with raisins. As for her drink we do water one day and the next day I add a small juice box plus her water bottle so she drinks juice for lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The containers that I use held baby food once from Target’s brand Up & Up. They’re pretty handy and stack up well in my daughter’s lunch bag.

I try to stick to serving sizes because that’s important and I do change up the menu days so my daughter doesn’t get bored with the food. I’m always on the look out for new food ideas to include in her lunch bag, especially healthy ones, and I’m doing my best with food labels, which can be tricky. I’m not going to say that I don’t let my daughter indulge in sweets (lollipops, ice cream sandwiches, cookies, etc.) because that would be a lie, but my husband and I try to keep her active by taking her to the park, Saturday mornings they train in Judo, and every week-day, as long as the weather is cooperating, I take her scooter with me when I’m picking her up from school so she can scoot home. Every little bit helps and counts.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Double the fun

Posted on April 6, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well.

The other day I made my first double “happy faces” lunch. Since my youngest, Sophia, is getting bigger, I decided to surprise her and her sister with this special lunch. Unfortunately, Sophia, who’s a picky eater one day and a hungry little monster the next, decided that it was a “let me torture my mom by not wanting to eat anything day!” At least, my oldest, Olivia, enjoyed her plate.

Food used to make these happy faces: strawberries, apples, bread w/ cream cheese, PBJ sandwiches, banana, raisins, and cheese sticks

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Hippity Hop, Easter’s on its way!

Posted on March 19, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well. Next week is spring recess (schools are closed), but before that happens my daughter’s class is going to have an Easter celebration this Friday coming. Her teacher asked for students to bring in a treat to share. I decided to do the same thing I did for Valentine’s Day. I just changed it to Easter. I went online and googled easter bunny coloring page and picked this image:

http://www.ikidspage.com/55-happy-easter-from-bunny

I printed out six bunnies to a page and cut them out. I inserted one bunny and a pack of mixed fruit gummies into a treat bag for my daughter’s classmates. Now they can enjoy a treat and color a cute bunny with an Easter egg. Simple and hopefully everyone will enjoy!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Keep calm and bake!

Posted on March 3, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well. Yesterday was my mother’s 61st birthday and it was fun spending time with her. My daughter’s couldn’t wait to get to grandma’s house and I wanted to spend as much time as I could so we got up, ate breakfast, got ready and went early to her house. I wanted to bake her a cake, but my dad insisted on buying it so my lazy booty agreed.

With enough time today, I decided to make the cake that I had been envisioning and I loved the end result. Also I wanted to kick myself for not making this for my mom. At least, I can make it for my dad who’s celebrating his 61st at the end of this month.

I love Betty Crocker’s Super Moist White cake mix and Dolci frutta hard chocolate shell, which you can easily melt in the microwave and it’s delicious. I also used strawberries and blueberries.

Once the cake was cool enough, I sliced up the strawberries, then melted the chocolate and poured some in the middle of the cake on top and placed the blueberries there. I drizzled some chocolate using the tip of a spoon and there you have it. Cake + chocolate + fruits = Yummy!

I also made cupcakes and put this together for my daughter. She couldn’t believe it was all hers!

I’m definitely going to make this for my dad’s birthday no matter how little time I have. No if’s, ands, or buts about it.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

themercadoproject

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Category Archives: Food

Think Breakfast

To my firstborn

Cucumbers and cookie cutters

JELL-O NO BAKE OREO DESSERT

A glance at last weeks school lunch from home

Celebration Recap

A glance at today’s school lunch from home

Double the fun

Hippity Hop, Easter’s on its way!

Keep calm and bake!