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My Favorite Books for Two/Three Year Olds
Last year around this time I posted "My Favorite Baby/Toddler Books" post summarizing those books both me and my toddler loved to read everyday and hoping it helps other new moms in their quest of good books to start their little ones with. And here is a sequel to that a year later! My daughter is now three years old and she still loves to read many books from  "My Favorite Baby/Toddler Books" post  however her focus has now changed from me reading to her to she "reading" to me or she reading to her various toys at their respective bedtimes :) Now a days she loves three types of books: 1) baby/toddler books which she can "read" by herself (knows the story by heart or can follow from pictures) 2) interactive books, exercise books or craft books 3) books I read to her at night-time with a more advanced plot, preferably animal family based plots. So here are our latest Two/Three year old favorite books: Blue Hat…

Happy Pumpkin Cookies
We made these happy pumpkin cookies for a Halloween party we hosted for our daughter and her friends and the kids and adults alike loved it!  You need a cookie cutter shaped like pumpkin which are readily available in supermarkets or craft stores during Halloween time or you can always order online . Just be sure to buy a large size cutter so it's easier to decorate pumpkin face and eyes, particularly for cookie novices like me :) I started off with making a simple sugar cookie dough using this Allrecipes recipe. Then roll the cookie dough to 1/4inch thick and cut pumpkin shaped cookies. Bake them as per the directions and when ready take out of oven. You need to decorate the cookies while they are still warm. So while the cookies are baking, you can arrange your decorating supplies. I used: Orange decorating icing from a tube (was red actually which is what I had on hand from previous baking but orange would be ideal) Green sparkle gel in a…

Gingerbread Cookies without Molasses
What is a Christmas without house smelling like cinnamon, sugar and spices! Every year on Christmas day morning my daughter and I bake cookies at home. Nothing extravagant, just simple cookies. I make the dough and roll it and my daughter cuts various shapes using cookie cutters and then we together bake them and feast! Last year we made sugar cookies and decorated with lots of icing and colored sugar sprinkles . But I was always so guilty letting my daughter eat those cookies because they were so sugar laden! So this year I decided to keep it simple and as much healthy as possible, so skipped the icing and decoration and settled on a basic gingerbread cookies recipe. But then came the next hurdle; every gingerbread cookies recipe I came across called for Molasses. We did not have any on hand and of-course stores are all closed on Christmas day. I have made the gingerbread cookies many years ago and I remembered from then that they were quite versatile. So…

Healthy Veggie Pizza (?!)
Generally speaking pizza and healthy are not the two words found complementing each other often. Pizza is decidedly an indulge for many of us - something to cave in on a Friday night along-with a movie and a coke/beer. But it really does not need to be so - you can make your pizza every week and eat it too (yes even weekday nights) without the guilt! The trick is to make it at home so you can control the ingredients without compromising the flavors. Using whole wheat pizza dough, moderate amount of skimmed milk cheese and loading it with lots and lots of veggies will all help with the brownie points.. I have been making this veggie pizza for quite a long time now. What I like most about this recipe is that it is filled with short cuts, all will save time here and there without compromising the taste. Also it's very versatile, the choices of toppings are endless so don't let what's not in your pantry deter you from putting together what would b…