Eggplant Baked Egg rolls

So, One night for dinner, I made chicken fried rice and wanted something to partner it with.
So, rummaging through the freezer were a package of egg roll wrappers. Normally, I make egg rolls with a coleslaw mix (cabbage {green and purple} and carrots) and sometimes I throw in ground beef and/or turkey.
This day, I had none of these ingredients!
What I did have was an eggplant, a bunch of green onions and a bag of snack size carrots!
They were a hit!

For a dozen egg rolls :
1eggplant
1 1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 bunch of green onions (about 5 or 6 onions)
1 1/2 to 2 (you can add more, to taste) tablespoons of soy sauce
 1 to 11/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
12 egg roll wrappers
Pam or other cooking spray of your choice
Preheat oven to 350
1. Dice the eggplant and green onions
2. Shred the carrots
3. Saute the eggplant, carrots and onions
4. Add the soy sauce and garlic powder
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray (generously with cooking spray)
5. Spoon about 2-3 tablespoons of the eggplant mixture onto an egg roll wrapper
6. Roll the wrapper (like a burrito)
7. Line up filled and rolled egg rolls onto baking sheet
8. Once all egg rolls are on baking sheet spray the egg rolls with cooking spray
9. Bake in oven for 7-8 minutes,  then flip egg rolls and bake for another 7-8 minutes until both sides are golden brown and egg rolls are crispy
10. Serve with your favorite sweet and sour sauce and enjoy!

My creative seven year old son blessed me with an awesome Mother's Day gift. A Mike Wazowski (from Monsters Inc.) "Trophy ".
I was just in awe of his creativeness!  On the back of the Monster 's Inc. card he wrote "Happy Mother's Day. You are a terrific MOMster"!

He used a rubber ball for the body. Benderoos for the limbs and microphone. Modeling clay for the ears. An empty tennis ball tube for the stool and slipped in construction paper with a "laugh collecting" canister, like in the movie!

DIY Jewelry Box

The kiddos and I made grandma a jewelry box from an old book.

I used an exacto  knife to cut out the pages leaving a quarter inch on all sides. It is not exact because you are cutting through so many pages, but it turns out just fine.

Once all the pages are cut through, I "painted " on mod podge on the outside pages, while I used a heavy object set on the book to press the pages together. I applied another layer after the first layer dried.

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We glued buttons over the writing on the front and side cover.
If you want to create a "secret" stash box. The leave it looking like an ordinary book.
The kiddos filled the jewelry box with homemade jewelry.
Grandma loved it!

Mother's Day Journal

My kiddos and I  had been thinking about what to give grandma for Mother's Day. What do you give to a grandma who has pretty much everything?
Then I saw this idea on Instagram http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/05/make-your-own-instagram-journal.htm from A Beautiful Mess.

I knew she would love a prayer journal and candid pictures of the kiddos. I used pictures uploaded from my cell, not all Instagram photos. I don't have Photoshop, but my husband recently downloaded Picasa 3 from Google for free and it works great. Picasa 3 has a collage template that I used.

 I used a composition notebook for the journal base. (I buy tons of them for pennies right before school begins every Fall). I printed out the collage in color on regular printer paper and glued (I used Mod Podge Glosss)  it to the front cover of the notebook. I folded in the edges and glued them down as well. Once the picture was secured to the front cover, I used the craft sponge on a stick to "paint" the Mod Podge Gloss on the actual picture. This gave the front cover a nice glossy look, like it had been there all along,

I love the way it turned out! We each wrote a special Mother's Day note along with a favorite verse. It is being sent off in the mail today!
Happy Mother's Day!