Easy {No Bake} Book Shaped Cookies

Easy {No Bake} Book Shaped Cookies at RoamingRosie.com

These book-shaped cookies are soooooo cute!

And I’m a total sucker for cute food.

Anyway, I made these for a book party I was throwing.  You know, because cookies that looked like books seemed like an appropriate snack for a party celebrating books.  :)

The best part?

{Have you read my blog?  Do ya know what I’m gonna say next??}

They were easy!

Cute + easy + yummy = AWEsome!

The idea came from Catholic Cuisine when I found a picture of their Bible cookies on Pinterest.  I just made mine a little differently.

Here are the step-by-step pictures:

Easy {No Bake} Book Shaped Cookies at RoamingRosie.com

As you can see from the above picture, I just cut off one end of some Newton cookies and – just like that – the cookies already looked like little novels.

I used the Apple Cinnamon Newtons and Blueberry Newtons, but any flavor will work.

To amplify the effect, I added some icing in a pattern that would make them look a little bit more like fancy hardcover books:  a line down the front to indicate where the spine would start, 4 little lines across the spine in two groups, and a rectangle over the front cover.

And then, for fun, I wrote some words on some of them.  You don’t really need to do that, but I really got into it.

Easy {No Bake} Book Shaped Cookies at RoamingRosie.com

To make the icing, all you really need to do is mix a little water or milk into some confectionery sugar, but I actually used the same recipe that I use for my Soft Sugar Cookies and Mini Soft Iced Gingerbread Cookies.

Then you just let the cookies sit for a couple of minutes to let the icing harden, before storing them in a closed container or displaying them on a tray to serve.

They’ll keep for a few days, so you can make them ahead of time.

Easy {No Bake} Book Shaped Cookies at RoamingRosie.com

And they’re totally perfect to enjoy with a cup of warm tea or coffee and a good {you know} book.

To find out more about the amazing books at our party, visit BooksWithRosie.com!

Enjoy!

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Bored? Not Even Close.

Spring Break Boredom Busters | Activity Books | Roaming Rosie

Am I bored?

Not even close.

In fact, I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had the chance {as you may have noticed} to update my blog in a while.

But this Boredom Buster graphic rolled across my Facebook feed, and when I thought about how Spring Break is coming up, I was also reminded of everything I’ve got going on right now and everything that need to get done.

For example, my girls are having a birthday party soon.  In a week, in fact.  A.  WEEK.

So I’ve been busy putting together goody bags, making mermaid tails, painting sharks, organizing decorations… stuff like that.  {All of which, of course, will soon be featured here.}

And I’ve also started a new job.  Part-time, but hey, that’s still that many more hours out of the house every week.  Plus, I’m still trying to get everything organized to do my taxes.  I’ve been selling books.  And I’ve been writing again, too.  The writing part is awesome, {really, really awesome}, but it tends to be a bit consuming, too.

Thus:  not a ton of blog posts.

Well, no.

Not a ton of finished and published blog posts.  A whole bunch of partially finished ones, though.  Just sitting there waiting for me….

Anywho, my apologies for those of you that noticed my absence.  Hope you didn’t miss me too much.  :)

Oh – and if you DO need some boredom busters, you can find the books pictured above at BooksWithRosie.com.

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Book Review: Easter Bunny Lift a Flap Book

Easter Bunny Lift-a-Flap Board Book

This adorable Easter Bunny Flap Book is not only fun for kids – it’s the perfect size to fit into an Easter basket, too!

I like to give my kids new books for every holiday, and this year, this flap book is going into my daughter’s basket.

It’s technically a baby book, but I’m giving it to my 2 (almost 3) year old, and I know my 4 (almost 5) year old will enjoy flipping through it, too, helping her sister find where the Easter bunny hid all the eggs!

Aside from the flaps that you have to lift to find the eggs, kids will also enjoy the peek-through holes in the pages that give you a hint at who we’re going to visit on the next page.

You can watch me demonstrate more about this charming book in my video review:

The Easter Bunny Lift-a-Flap Board Book isn’t available any more on my Usborne Books site, but you can still find some used copies on Amazon.

Happy Easter and Happy Reading!!

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Freezer Crock Pot Meals: Jambalaya

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

With the colors and excitement of Mardi Gras around me, I felt inspired to make some jambalaya.

It’s been on my To Do list for awhile, and I really haven’t been keeping up with making new Freezer Meals anyway, so it felt like great timing.

Technically Mardi Gras had already passed when I made it, but it is a warmly spicy and flavorful dish that’s a comforting {and super easy} meal anytime.

Why is it so easy?  As you can see in the pictures below, everything gets thrown into one freezer bag, and then the contents of that freezer bag later get thrown into a crock pot.  Done.

It’s best with rice, but that’s also something you can make ahead of time and have stored in the fridge.

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

I typed up my recipe with the ingredients measured out for one meal:  one freezer bag portion that serves 4.

However, you can see that I actually made two.

And if chicken hadn’t been so expensive when I was in the mood for this, I would have made even more.

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

Once you put all of the ingredients in the bag, you freeze it overnight while it’s flat.

I like to put mine on top of pizza boxes or baking sheets, or something else smooth, because if you freeze them right on wire shelves, they’ll have little bumps on one side.  That doesn’t hurt the recipe, but it takes up waaaay more space in the freezer.

And the whole point is that you can stack these frozen meals vertically or horizontally without them taking up much space.

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

And when you’re ready to eat, you just pull a bag out of the freezer and dump the contents into the crock pot.

I run mine under some warm {not hot} water in the sink for just a couple of minutes, to help break the large chunk into a few smaller chunks.

You can throw it right in the crockpot when it’s still completely frozen, it just fits better in smaller chunks.

Oh, and as you can see in the photos, there’s an excess of broth.  It will look wet when you first put it into the bowl, but once you stir in a scoop of rice, the rice will soak up most of the liquid.

So the finished product is not as soupy as it appears when still in the crock pot.

Feel free to adjust the seasonings to your own taste!  I like my food spicy, and though the heat was strong, I didn’t think it was too much.  But you can just use less hot sauce or a milder sausage if you prefer.

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

Ingredients:
14 to 16 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast
8 oz. Andouille sausage
1 (28 oz.) can diced or petite diced tomatoes
1 medium to large sweet onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 cup chicken or beef broth
2 garlic cloves, diced
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Prepare a gallon freezer baggy by writing today’s date and the instructions on it. Set aside.

Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes. Cut sausage into slices or dice it.

Put chicken and sausage into a one gallon freezer baggy. Add the rest of the ingredients to bag. Seal bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Place the bag into the freezer on a flat surface, like a baking pan, to freeze overnight. Once frozen, you can store the bags upright.

When you’re ready to cook, remove baggy from freezer and run under warm water just long enough to break the contents into a few smaller pieces, about 2 minutes. Pour contents into crock pot and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 3 hours. Discard bay leaves before serving.

Serve with rice. Serves 4.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BAG: Jambalaya ~ Cook on high 7-8 hours / low 3 hours ~ Serve with rice ~ Date

NOTE: This recipe makes one freezer bag portion but is easily doubled or tripled, making it easy to assemble multiple meals at one time, like you see in the photos.

**********

To print the free PDF copy of the recipe, click here:  Freezer Crock Pot Jambalaya

Enjoy!

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Book Review: Flippy Floppy Lift a Flap Jungle Animals

Flippy Floppy Jungle Animal Board Book

This Flippy Floppy Jungle Book is one of my kid’s newest fascinations.  They’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

It’s a great lift-the-flap board book from Usborne/Kane Miller that offers a lot of interaction for kids.

The purpose of the book is to lift four flaps in order to slowly reveal a hidden animal.  As you go, the animal you’re looking for appears as bits and pieces of other animals.  For example, the tail of the tiger is also the beak of a toucan and the body of a snake.

There are cut-outs to look through and a little bird to find on all of the pages.  The last page challenges kids to find all the animals again, and it’s sturdy enough for little hands to get excited about with thick pages and rounded corners.

I go into some more detail in my video review, where you can also see how it works:

And, yes… I’m aware that I have a strange expression on my face in the video thumbnail.  TRUST me – it was the best one!

I’m also aware that I keep calling it “Flippity Floppity Jungle Animals” on the video.  I don’t know why, but “Flippy Floppy” seems to be difficult for me to say…

Anyway, to see the book, or add it to your online wishlist, click:

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Jungle Animal Book

And if you like this book, you’ll also love:

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Farm Animals

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Farm Animals

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Ocean Animals

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Ocean Animals

Happy Reading!

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Victorian Valentines

Victorian Valentines

This was such a cute project that I just HAD to share it – even though Valentine’s Day has already past.

I found a couple of packs of old fashioned looking stickers {kinda like this or this or this} while browsing scrapbooking supplies and I just couldn’t pass them up.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the stickers at first, but when I pulled out the heart shaped doilies for Valentine’s Day, I realized they would be a perfect pair!

Thus were born our “Victorian Valentines!”

Victorian Valentines

We cut out some pink and red hearts from construction paper to fit within the “lace” and glued them down.  Then they added stickers to the heart.

We kept these to use as decorations, but if you wanted to give them as actual Valentines, there’s plenty of room on the back to write a nice message!

Happy Crafting!

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Spreading a Love of Reading This Valentine’s Day

Spread a Love of Reading This Valentine's Day!

I love Usborne Books & More, and so for Valentine’s Day, I’d like to share some of that love with you!

This company has done amazing things in my life, and since I’ve been a part of it, I’ve found my kids reading and asking me to read to them even MORE than they used to!

I’ve been able to witness kids who were unable to keep their hands off of these gorgeous books.  I’ve seen kids hug them.  Cling to them.  I watched children just today who picked out some books from my booth at a craft fair, and barely make it to the next booth before sitting down on the grass to read and play with their new books while their mother shopped for hair bows.

Kids love these books.

And, so, to celebrate this love, I wanted to share a few books with you that are great reads for Valentine’s Day…… and all year long!

The Best Children's Books for Valentine's Day

Cuddle Bear

The Children Who Loved Books

The Dog Who Loved Red

The Big Snuggle Up

East of the Sun, West of the Moon {Read my review here}

Beauty and the Beast

I Love Words

I Love People

Children’s Cupcake Kit

Decorations to Cut, Fold, & Stick

Choose Your Own Ever After:  A Hot, Cold Summer

Illustrated Fairy Tales

Illustrated Stories of Princes and Princesses

Singing to the Sun

The Key to My Heart

What Comes After a Thousand?

The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness

Wilfrid Gordon Mcdonald Partridge

But if you’d rather just browse the entire catalog of over 1,800 books yourself, you can start at BooksWithRosie.com!

Teach Your Kids to LOVE Books!

My experience has shown that if you expose kids to awesome books, the love blossoms all on it’s own.

But you can help that process along by surrounding kids with amazing books!  :)

Teach Your Kids to LOVE Books!

Happy Valentine’s Day – and Happy Reading!!

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Images copyright Usborne Publishing

Valentine’s Day Free Printable Tags for Pens & Pencils

FREE Valentine's Day Tags for Pens and Pencils

I recently posted some Printable Valentine’s Day Tags for Bubbles, which were the treats my kids handed out to their classes for Valentine’s Day.

Then I realized that their teachers may not want bubbles as a present….

And as I browsed the shelves, looking at everything from candy to candles, I wandered into the school supply aisle and spied some colorfully decorated gel pens.

I thought they looked fun, and teachers always need pens…..

Free Printable Valentine's Day Tags for Pens and Pencils

So I picked up the pens and made some printable tags for them.

The tags have an illustration of a pen on them, which is light so you can write over it, and after you cut them out, you just need to use a hole punch to add a hole to the one side.

I made them in both red and blue, so you can pick whichever you like best, and I tied them onto the pens with some bakers twine.

The gel pens actually make a really cute gift for older kids as well, and it’s a great non-candy option.

Here are the two tags in printable PDF form:

Valentine’s Day Printable Tags for Pens and Pencils (Blue)

Valentine’s Day Printable Tags for Pens and Pencils (Red)

Enjoy!

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Letter F: Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids

FREE Printable Letter F Alphabet Activities Worksheets at RoamingRosie.com

If you’re new here, please read the Introduction to the Alphabet Activities first!

And you can see all of our Letter F projects at Letter F Alphabet Activities.

Here are all of the printable PDFs for the Letter F.  They are free for home and classroom use, but please don’t sell or reproduce them.

F is for Fast Frogs

F is for Feathers

F is for Ferret

F is for Flamingos and Flip Flops

F is for Flamingos

F is for Fox and French Fries

And don’t forget to check out all of our Letter F Alphabet Activities!

Follow me on Facebook and Pinterest to see my latest posts!

Have fun!

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Letter F: Alphabet Activities for Kids

Alphabet Activities for Kids - Project Ideas - Free Worksheets - at RoamingRosie.com

Welcome to Letter F Day!

If you haven’t read the Introduction to the Alphabet Activities, you should start there.

Don’t forget to check out the Letter F:  Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids, too!

F is for Flamingo {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

This F is for Flamingo paper craft is really one of my favorite letters.

It must be a Floridian thing.  I have a special place in my heart for flamingos.  :)

Anyway, to make this, I cut out a lowercase F ahead of time and some feet, wings, and a beak, then gave my daughter those pieces and a googly eye and let her assemble the bird.

I also cut out that cute itty bitty flamingo in the bottom corner.  Just ’cause.

F is for Fish Letter Sorting  {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

For our letter sorting activity, I cut out two fish and cut out the letters on light blue paper in the shape of circles to represent bubbles.

F is for Finger Flower Puppets  {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

These flower fingers were inspired by a similar idea I found in a craft book dating from my childhood.

What I did was cut out some green paper to resemble the shape of uppercase T.  That “top” of the letter T would get wrapped around our fingers and the rest would function as the flower’s stem.

I also cut out some flower and leaf shapes, and we glued them all together to form our flowers.  Then, after letting the glue dry for a few minutes, we taped that “top” part of the T that I mentioned into a circle so that we could slide that part over our fingers.

Of course, the flower petal part of our finger puppets were a little heavy.  They drooped a bit, but, really, the girls didn’t mind.  It was still a lot of fun for them.  To fix that particular problem, though, you could use thicker paper (card stock instead of construction paper) or add a Popsicle stick or something for support.

F is for Footprints  {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

Now, this F is for Footprints project was a really, really huge hit.

And super simple.

One of my favorite combinations.  :)

Cornstarch Paint  {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

To make the paint for the footprints, you simply combine 1/2 cup cornstarch with a 1/2 cup of water, and mix it together with a fork.  Then drop in a bit of food coloring.

{If you’re using a nonstick pan to make the paint, be sure to mix it with a plastic fork.}

I made two colors in two cake pans, because the cake pan was big enough to hold my kids’ feet.  But they were both pretty young the first time we did this – so be sure to check your pan/bowl against your kid’s feet.

F is for Footprints

Anyway:  throw the cornstarch paint container out onto a driveway or sidewalk or deck, let the kids step in the paint and then trek colorful footprints everywhere.

And to really highlight the letter of the day, I made an outline of a giant F on the driveway with painters tape.  The girls had fun filling the F with messy footprints.

Oh:  and you may need to stir the paint occasionally.  That’s why you see my daughter carrying around forks in the photo.  The paint IS – technically – edible.  But I wouldn’t suggest testing out the taste.  Ick!

F is for Foam Frames

Okay, okay … this was kind of cheating.

We had some foam frames and foam stickers left over from a birthday party craft … so I just let the girls go ahead and make another frame apiece.

I guess you could get really into the alphabet thing and just stick letter Fs all over the frame, but we kinda just added this into our activities as a fun little project, putting their names at the bottom of the frame and going to town with the flower, animal, and instrument stickers over the rest.

Another option, however, would be to just use the foam flower stickers.  Which would also look nice.

F is for Feathers {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

This worksheet was really fun for them.

I picked up some feathers at my local dollar store, but they were kind of long.  Longer than the letter F if you laid them horizontally on the paper.  So I cut them into pieces for this project.

That may have something to do with my OCD, though.  You could also just use 3 feathers to make an F.

This is one of the free printable worksheets I made, which you can download at Letter F:  Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids.  If you have feather stickers or a stamp, you could use that instead, but I find that the texture of the craft feathers is part of what made it really interesting.

F is for Florida's Flag  {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

As you may have noticed, we live in Florida.

So, coloring Florida’s Flag was a natural for Letter F Day.  But you could also do Finland, Fiji, and/or France instead, if you preferred.

Either way, you can get some printable flag coloring pages at World Free Printable Flags, including the Florida Flag.

F is for Letter F Sound Box {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

We don’t actually make Sound Boxes for every letter.

We probably should, but the reason we did it for F is because F is a big letter for us.  It’s the first letter of my oldest daughter’s name.  So it’s a pretty exciting letter in our house.

Our F Sound Box included flowers, forks, fruit, fish, an F alphabet block, some paper flags, and a Ferrari.

Our Sound Box was inspired by the “Sound Box” books the series by Jane Belk Moncure.  They’re kind of hard to find now, so I’m glad I picked up a couple when I did years ago, although you can still sometimes find them on Amazon:

Sound Box Books by Jane Belk Moncure

F is for Food  :)

F is for Fish French Toast {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

We used the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Honey Whole Wheat Bread.  You COULD get it on Amazon, which is what I linked to, but it’s kinda seriously pricey, so I suggest checking your local stores first.  I only include the link because it helps me to visualize what I’m looking for if I can see it first.

What I actually suggest is – if you can’t find the Goldfish bread in the store – just use fish shaped cookie cutters to make your own fish shaped bread, kind of like when I made Fall French Toast in the shape of Autumn leaves.

F is for Fruit and Franfurters {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

This was a simple lunch.  I warmed up some frankfurters {turkey dogs count!}, sliced them into three pieces, and formed an F with the pieces on the plate.

Then I added some fruit.  A mixture of fruit would have been nice, but the only fresh fruit we had that day was watermelon, so that’s what we ate.

F is for Fish Sticks and French Fries {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

Since we did so many activities for Letter F Day, dinner was also {like lunch} simple.

I threw some frozen french fries and frozen fish sticks on a cookie sheet and baked them up while I made a salad.  {A “fresh” salad??}

Anyway, this particular meal is always a hit with my kids, but before we ate it, I made sure to make a game out of searching for all of the letter Fs on the boxes of the fries and fish sticks.

F is for Fairy Fudge {Alphabet Activities at RoamingRosie.com}

This was a pretty dessert, but also super, super sweet.

Why is it called “Fairy Fudge?”  Well, I named it for Fairy Bread, which is a slice of white bread covered with butter and colorful sprinkles.  But what we did here was make white chocolate fudge and cover IT with colorful nonpareil sprinkles.  My kids LOVE sprinkles.

The fudge pictured above was from a rather unsuccessful recipe {waaaay to sweet and not the right texture at all}, but I’ve come up with my own recipe for Vanilla Fairy Fudge which is SO much better!

Vanilla Fairy Fudge Recipe

Okay – that’s it for Letter F Day, except for my Letter F:  Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids, of course!

And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest to see my latest posts!

Have fun!

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