Archives for October 2019

Mornings can be a tough time to maintain your supermom status when it comes to providing healthy meals. Rushing out the door when NO ONE, including the dog, is cooperating, is enough to make you want to hit the drive-thru. But with a little planning ahead, you can make breakfast easy-peasy lemon-squeezy in less time than it takes to say, “Do you want fries with that?”

Maple, Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Overnight Oats

Fill your mason jar with rolled oats, maple syrup, cinnamon and milk and wake up to a quick and healthy gluten-free breakfast.

Serves 4.  Note: This recipe can either be made in two larger mason jars, each holding two servings, or four smaller mason jars, each containing one single serving.

Ingredients: 

2 cups rolled oats gluten-free

1 tsp vanilla

2 cup almond milk

3 Tbsp brown sugar

¾ tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp pure maple syrup

¼ cup pecans coarsely chopped, toasted

Instructions:

• In four mason jars, place equal amounts of the oats, vanilla and milk in each. Stir to mix well.
• In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup. Pour a quarter of this mixture in each of the jars over the oats. Stir to combine.
• Refrigerate jars for at least 2 hours or overnight.
• Just before serving, toast pecans at 325 degrees for 5-7 minutes. Divide pecans and sprinkle in each jar.
• Serve with additional cinnamon and maple syrup, if desired, and enjoy!

Credit: Evolving Table 

Slow Cooker Overnight Breakfast Casserole

There’s nothing better than waking up to the smell of a homemade breakfast already made! This casserole is loaded up with sausage, diced hash browns, eggs and cheese. Not a fan of sausage? Swap out the sausage for bacon for an equally tasty breakfast.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients: 

1 16-ounce package pork sausage

1 lb. bag frozen hash browns (diced or shredded)

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

12 eggs

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions: 

• Brown and crumble the sausage in a skillet over medium heat. Once the sausage is fully cooked, remove from the skillet and place onto a plate covered with a paper towel. Place another paper towel on top and press to remove as much grease as possible.
• Spray the inside of the slow cooker with non stick cooking spray.
• Layer the frozen hash browns, diced onion, bell peppers, cooked sausage, and cheddar cheese in the slow cooker.
• In a medium size bowl, mix the eggs with the milk, salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture into the slow cooker over the other ingredients.
• Set to cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Credit: House of Yumm 

Easy Breakfast Muffins with a Hash Brown Crust

Delicious egg and bacon breakfast muffins with a hash brown crust. Perfect make ahead breakfast or for a brunch!

Serves 24

 Ingredients: 

For the hash brown crust: 

1 20-oz shredded hash browns (or frozen, thawed and strained)

1 egg

1/3 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried parsley

3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1 Tsp olive oil

For the egg mixture: 

12 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup shredded Mexican blend (or your other favorite) cheese

12 slices crispy bacon cut up into bite-size pieces

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 1/2 tsp dried parsley

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spray two 12-cup muffin tins with non-stick baking spray

For the hash brown crust: 

• Mix entire bag of hash browns with egg, oil, cheese, salt, pepper, minced garlic, paprika, and parsley in large bowl until seasonings are well combined.
• Split hash brown mixture evenly among the 24 baking cups then pat it down with the back of a cup or other round container that fits into the muffin tins.
• Bake hash brown crust in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until it gets slightly browned and crispy.

For egg mixture: 

• While crust is cooking, mix eggs, milk, cheese, salt, pepper, parsley, and bacon in a large bowl.
• Once hash brown crust is slightly browned, split the egg mixture evenly on top of the hash browns in the muffin tins, filling to about 3/4 full.
• Bake in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until eggs are fully cooked.
• Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing from the muffin tins by sliding a silicone spatula around the outside of the cups.
• Serve hot or at room temperature.

Credit: Play. Party. Plan 

Did you know Staten Island has a DOE Cooperative Technical Education program for high school seniors and post graduates up to age 21?

I recently had the opportunity to visit to learn more about the District 79 program, which is located in the New York State Institute for Basic Research (IBR) building at 1050 Forest Hill Road. The program offers classes in Medical Billing & Coding, Building Maintenance and Carpentry. Each program has a morning session from 8:30am to 11am and an afternoon session from 12pm to 2:30pm. Students attend either session that is compatible with their current school program.

MEDICAL BILLING & CODING (Teacher: Mrs. Cerrai)
Students will learn about different types of insurances, billing for single and multi-physician offices, understanding hospital, emergency room and outpatient services. They learn about proper vocabulary, medical billing tasks, confidentiality and other laws that apply to the field. The students are exposed to a work-based learning environment and have the opportunity to participate in an internship with South Shore Eye Care. At the completion of the program, students will have an opportunity to receive Professional Certifications from the American Medical Certification Association for Billing/Coding and Medical Administrative Assistant/Electronic Billing and OSHA.

BUILDING MAINTENANCE (Teacher: Mr. Territo)
This course provides students with the theoretical and hands-on experience necessary to perform entry building maintenance and repair functions. Students will learn sheetrock installation, finishing and repair, floors and wall tile installation, painting, door and door lock installation and repairs and landscaping. There will be a guest expert from Kingstone Locksmith (more at https://kingstonelocksmith.com/) to help students practice in lock installation. Students have installed memorials on the IBR grounds and maintained them. During my visit, I observed the students maintaining the interior and exterior of the IBR facility as part of their course work. At the completion of the Building Maintenance program, students have the opportunity to receive an OSHA certification.

CARPENTRY – (Teacher: Mr. Baiardi)
Students will learn basic carpentry skills for residential and commercial construction that are applicable in both new construction and renovation/restoration. Students will learn to read blueprints and the proper use of hand and power tools. They will be exposed to cabinetmaking and millwork, as well as green carpentry and residential building framing and finishing. At the completion of the program, students will have an opportunity to receive an OSHA certification.

The current carpentry students are working on several projects, including trash-housing structures to secure the trash bins and reduce the trash that blows across the IBR campus. This will help the resident families, who are participating in the research projects at IBR. Additionally, the Coop Carpentry students are collaborating with Staten Island Tech High School via the Guild of Staten Island Tech MakerSpace teacher, Charles Dazzo, to build worktables to replace desks currently being used by SI Tech students. Last but not least, the students are building benches that will be part of the Historic Richmond Town renovation project.

Mr. Dazzo hosts monthly meetings where he invites Trade Labor Union representatives to present information and opportunities to students and families. As you can see, this is an exciting opportunity for high school seniors and post graduates who are 17-21 years old.

Parents, principals, and guidance counselors play a pivotal role in letting students know about these opportunities in the 9th and 10th grades, so they can plan to incorporate it into their senior year schedule. The School of Cooperative Technical Education at the Institute for Basic Research, a NYC DOE Career and Technical High School Program, is a great way to expose students to real-life work opportunities as they consider their options moving on to college and/or a career.

If you are interested learning more about this program or want to know if your child’s high school already participates, please email the Coop Tech Guidance Counselor Mrs. Vitale-Mercado at RVitaleMercado@schools.nyc.gov or call (718) 290-8600 ext. 2110.

Read more about the Co-Op Tech Education at www.co-optech.org

By Community Education Council 31 President Michael Reilly

There are tens of millions of Alexa devices out there today, and every day people are amazed at how Alexa is becoming a part of their lives, but did you ever think she would even help make parenting just a little bit easier. For instance, did you know Alexa can play “judge” and settle a sibling dispute?

From helping kids sleep, to getting them out the door in the morning – even printing a coloring page, here are some Alexa lifehacks that you might not have known:

·      “Alexa, tell me a story”: Just ask Alexa to tell a story and she’ll read an original, kid-friendly, short story like Puppy Love, Batter Up, New Pet, and more.

·      Ask Alexa to settle a fight: Are your siblings having a disagreement? Just ask Alexa to “enable Kids Court” and she will be your impartial judge. In this skill, Alexa will ask the parties to explain the problem, ask follow-up questions to encourage kids to be truthful and friendly, then issue an impartial ruling based on their responses.

·      Let Alexa help your kids brush their teeth: Alexa can help make brushing their teeth a habit for kids. Enable The Tooth Fairy skill and Alexa will explain facts about dental care, give words of encouragement while your kids are brushing or flossing and play music to help them with timing.

·      Ask Alexa to play sleep sounds: Enable one of many ambient sounds skills for Alexa and make falling asleep easier for your kids. Just ask Alexa to play rain sounds, forest sounds, space sounds and much more.

·      Get out the door in the morning: Who hasn’t had trouble getting kids out the door for school? Enable the Out the Door skill for Alexa, and she’ll turn your daily routine into an adventure, with missions like ‘get dressed,’ ‘brush your teeth,’ or ‘get your backpack.’

·      Ask Alexa to print a coloring page: Do the kids need something to do? If you have an HP printer at home, with the HP Printer skill, you can just ask Alexa to print pre-installed templates like a Crayola coloring page, a word search game, bingo cards, and more! Just say, “Alexa, enable HP printer,” and she’ll walk you through the steps to link your printer. Then, your kids can just say, “Alexa, ask my printer to print a Crayola coloring page.”

·      Get moving with music and exercise games: Enable the Music Bop to skill to get your kids moving and learning along with Alexa, or enable the Animal Workout skill – and Alexa will walk kids through various fun and funny workouts where they get to pretend to be all kinds of critters!