Rainbow Rice

 Remember my post on Puffy Paint and how i mentioned I'd put up a post on another fun activity for kids? Well, here it is. Rainbow Rice!

All kids love to play with rice. Well, my two boys certainly do! They are always getting into the rice bag in my kitchen and making a mess. So when I came across this wonderful idea at Happy Hooligans, I knew instantly this was something Kochu would love doing.
Kochu and I made colored rice for the first time recently (he picked out the colors and helped squish the mixing bags) and it was so fun to both watch him and join him in exploring this new sensory medium.. He was so excited!

We played outside, where I wasn't stressed about rice going everywhere. Kochu has great fun mixing all the colors together. He then started filling containers, pouring them out and refilling. He still hasn't tired of playing with it two days later and even with sprinkling it on himself, as if it was fairy dust and looking at the colors against the grass and cement path.

I definitely consider this activity a great success and plan to make colored rice again.

Be warned, this is quite messy in the making stage. But the excited squeals of delight from your kids will make it all worth it! And yes, I did go a little crazy with the number of pics, it was just all too colorful for me to resist! :)

Materials needed:
1 cup of rice
1/2 tsp vinegar
Liquid food coloring
Plastic zip-lock bags

Method:

To make rainbow rice you will want to fill the plastic bags with the rice.  Add several drops of food coloring to each bag along with the vinegar.  The vinegar just helps spread the coloring onto the rice.  You want to add enough but not too much.

From here you can either let the rice dry right in the bag or lay them out on baking sheets or similar to dry.  If you leave them in the bag to dry just be sure to leave the bags open.  All done!  In roughly 4-6 hours your rice will be ready for play.

Main materials

Rice all ready to be colored

Just look at those smiles!! Precious! :)

Amazed with the awesome colors on his hands.
And I think even more amazed Amma allowed him to be this messy!

Shake baby shake!!

Even Chackochi was excited! :P

Waiting for it to dry...
P.S. I know I don't have it in all colors of the rainbow, but it is still as colorful!

Just beautiful!!!!!!

Well, what are you waiting for?? Go on and make your own rainbow rice and tell me you didn't have fun!

Happy St. Patrick's day people! :)

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Jumbo M&M Cookies/Rainbow Cookies

I know I've been MIA the last couple of weeks but I've just been pretty busy with life in general. But I must admit, I've certainly missed not being able to write here. But I promise today's recipe was well worth the wait! :)

But before we get to that, some chitty-chat! Chackochi is is 8 months old and I have to confess I am exhausted. These past few nights have been horrendous for both of us, maybe more so for him. I think it may be because he is finally cutting his tooth. He is miserable at night and nothing I do seems to help. He goes to sleep for ten minutes and then wakes wanting to comfort-nurse and I’m trying, really I am, but I’m running on fumes in the day. He never liked the soother,so now I get to be the pacifier. Yay, me! I just hope the tooth comes out soon and puts him out of his misery.

Teething meltdown aside, he has been pulling himself up to stand (everywhere) and I may have to invest in a baby helmet because he keeps falling over and hitting his head. He is so much more talkative and expressive. It’s so funny to watch some of the faces he comes up with . I can't believe how fast time is flying and I am a bit sad to see my bubba growing up so soon. 

And the same goes for Kochu, he's already 2.5 years old! It seems like yesterday he was crawling around the house and getting into my cupboards and playing with my pots and pans. Kochu speaks Malayalam beautifully now, properly stringing them into sentences and he's right grammatically, most of the time! I love hearing him talk and he always has something new and funny to say and takes me by surprise every time! So proud of you darling :)
I love seeing the boys playing together. Kochu keeps Chackochi entertained most of the time, giving me time to cleanup and cook. It just melts my heart hearing them giggling away. Don't be fooled, it's not always giggles, we have our fair share of tears and tantrums in between as well!

Ok, enough of rambling for now, right? Lets get on to the yummy recipe. This is my first time effort at making cookies and am absolutely proud of the result! This gooey, chewy cookie is seriously a piece of heaven! Don't just take my word for it, try it yourself and your kids will love you for it :)

Jumbo M&M Cookies/Rainbow Cookies
Recipe adapted from Baking Illustrated

Ingredients:
makes 15  large cookies
2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
12 tablespoons of salted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup m&m’s

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix the butter and sugars until they are combined . Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed.

3. Gradually add flour and mix until a dough forms – it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together.

4. Fold in the m&m’s.

5. Divide the dough how you choose. Shape each portion into a ball with your hands then pull each ball into two equal pieces. Turn each half so that the rough side of the half (what used to be the inside of the ball) faces upwards and then squish both halves together.
So basically, you have to take the ball of cookie dough and tear it in half. Then stick them back together upside down. Crazzzzy, right?! I know. I thought so too, but it absolutely works! It allows for the perfect thickness to achieve the delicious chew which most people find quintessential in cookies.
Place the dough rough-side up on a baking sheets. If you’re doing large cookies, I’d leave about 2 inches in between each.

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. The centers should be soft and puffy.Take out of the oven. Doing so plays a large part in the resulting texture. Cooling the cookies on the baking sheets means they will continue to bake after being taken out of the oven, but without the circulating air of a cooling rack, they will retain their soft texture. I know it is hard to take cookies out of the oven unless they look completely done, but have faith! You don’t want to over bake these in the oven! Let cool completely then dig in!

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