Pumpkin Breakfast Porridge

What a great time of year to have something pumpkin-y for breakfast.  I saw a post the other day for a breakfast porridge, but decided to adapt it for our family.  We had it this morning, and I got thumbs up from my kids.  

The great thing about this recipe is you can change it up however you want.  Don't like one of the fruits in this recipe? Substitute if for another one! It was nice to serve something different for breakfast, and the pumpkins and apples are always a treat for fall.  

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (make sure pumpkin is the only ingredient)
• 1 cup coconut milk (any milk will work)
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. coconut flour
• 1 apple, diced
• 1/4 cup raisins
• walnuts or almonds, crushed (optional)

Instructions:

• Use an immersion blender or regular blender to blend the bananas and pumpkin puree.  Add the milk and eggs and blend to combine.  
• Pour into pot and heat over medium heat.  Add butter, vanilla,  and cinnamon and stir constantly.  
• Once warm, whisk in coconut flour and keep stirring until well incorporated.  
• Spoon into bowls and top with diced apples, raisins, and nuts.  
• Makes 4 bowls

Unit Ten: Water

To see a list of posts for all of our units for Kindergarten, see here.  This post contains information about only Unit Ten: Water.

Unit Ten focused on the letter W for Water and the coordinating Bible truth was "Jesus gives my spirit living water to drink." Benjamin really enjoyed this unit because it gave him the opportunity to do a lot of hands-on activities.  I found a great 36 page resource for $3 that was worth every penny (see below)!

Benjamin cut out items from a magazine that were solids, liquids, and gases.  All I had was a Pottery Barn magazine, but we made it work :) He cut out cucumbers for the solids, glasses full of water and juice for the liquids, and the sky for his gas.  

Here, Benjamin drew his own solid (Lego man, of course), liquid (water in a swimming pool), and gas (helium in a balloon). 

Some supplements we used for this unit:

My favorite thing that I found for this unit was a 36-page printable from Teacher's Notebook. It cost $3, but it was totally worth it!  My son really enjoyed all of the experiments and it was fun to have bright pages at which to look.  I would definitely recommend getting a copy!  If you've never used Teacher's Notebook before, I would recommend creating an account and browsing through their stuff.  You can get a lot of great stuff for free or pay a few dollars for some great stuff too.  See the lesson on matter here.  

ABC Memory Verse Cards
In addition to the Bible truth, we are also memorizing a Bible verse that begins with the letter of the week. I received some ACB cards as a gift and they are by Dayspring, but I have also seen these online that would work just as well.

This week our W verse was: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for man" (Colossians 3:23). 

Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader K
This book is perfect for kindergarten, as it has a well-illusrtated animal lesson for each letter of the alphabet.  This week we learned about whales.  

I've mentioned that we use this book before, but it had a great section on matter.  We always love The Berenstain Bears!

Some books we enjoyed for this unit were Water Changes and Down Comes the Rain. 

Cauliflower Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

I was a little skeptical when I tried making this recipe today.  I'm trying to cut back on carbs and eat more vegetables, and I read somewhere that cauliflower can be used in place of rice or to make a pizza crust, etc.  So, I found a "fried rice" recipe that substituted cauliflower for rice and decided to give it a try.

The Results: We really liked it! Now, I did some tweaking of my own to the recipe to make it a little more tasty for us, so that's why I'm posting it here so I won't forget what I did.  I was amazed at how much the cauliflower looked and even tasted like rice.  What a healthy alternative to incorporate more veggies into your diet without even realizing it! Hope you enjoy it as much as our family did!

Cauliflower Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey (ground beef or chicken would work, or leave it out completely)
• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce (omit this if gf or using something in its place)
• 1 Tbsp Sherry
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 large head of Cauliflower, cut in small chunks
• 1 cup peas
• 1 cup carrots, cut into small chunks
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil or butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

Peanut Sauce:

• 1-2 Tbsp. peanut butter (depending on how pea-nutty you want it)
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (regular milk will work)
• 1/2 squeezed lemon
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions:

• Stir together sherry, soy sauce, minced garlic, cumin and ground turkey and set aside.
• Place cauliflower in food processor or blender and pulse for one second a few times.  You just want the consistency to be like that of rice, so don't blend it or it will get mushy.  Set aside.
• Cook peas and carrots on stove until tender and drain.
• Melt 1 Tbsp. coconut oil in skillet on medium heat and add ground turkey.  Cook all the way through and set aside.
• Using the same skillet, melt 1 Tbsp of coconut oil and place cauliflower in skillet and brown.  Add orange juice.
• Make a well in center of skillet and add egg and scramble.  Once it is scrambled, toss with cauliflower.
• Add peas and carrots and turkey.
• In microwave safe bowl, mix your sauce ingredients and microwave for 30-45 seconds.  Whisk sauce and pour on top of stir fry.
• Serve immediately.

Original recipe came from here.