Community Gardens = Family Fun & Extra Food

A lot of cities have these wonderful little things sprouting up called "community gardens" and depending on what yours offers you might be able to turn a family activity into some extra food for your table.

Where we live, the local Parks & Recreation Department has a section in one of the parks fenced off for these awesome 4'x8' raised planting beds.  If you are a resident of the area you can "rent" one for 6 months at the cost of $12.50 or you can get it for a full year for $25.00.  Considering the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables, this is real deal!

My kids and I have rented one for a full year and this will be our first year trying to be "urban farmers" but we are excited about the prospect of growing our own produce!

So look into your local parks and see if they offer anything similar.  Not only would a garden like this give your family a sense of accomplishment, but it can teach your children about responsibility and get them more involved in making healthy eating choices.



Family Fun at College Campuses

If you are lucky enough to live in a town/city that has a college campus then you have another possible source for FREE family fun.


Here in our town there happen to be more than one so I make sure to check their calendar of events as often as possible because you never can tell what they have going on.


For example - a few weekends ago one of the colleges here hosted a "Battling Robots" Challenge for Science and Robotics clubs from the surrounding areas.  I knew that my seven year old son would be super interested and it was free so I drove us out to the event to take a look.

While it wasn't as "flashy" as the adult version you see on television, it was still really interesting and pretty cool to see what the "young minds" of today come up with. 


So don't forget to check out local colleges in your area to see what up and coming events they have.  You might find more to do there than you think you might.

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Easy & Inexpensive - Mandarin Orange Cake

Every now and then I like to fix a dessert but since I am not one that enjoys eating or serving a heavy dessert that is covered in thick, sweet frosting, I am always on the lookout for something light and fresh tasting.


Enter the Mandarin Orange Cake - like most recipes, there are different versions of this cake and most of the ones that I have seen use a cool whip/pudding type mixture for a "frosting" but even that was too much for what I was looking for.  Instead I opted for a very light drizzle of the "powder sugar and milk" icing and it was perfect!

The recipe is so simple - just use a box of yellow cake mix, 3/4 cup of oil, 3 eggs and one 11oz can of mandarin oranges - with the juice.


I gently folded the mandarin oranges into the batter so that they wouldn't break up too much, hoping that we would end up with whole orange segments in our cake.  As you can see from the photos, it worked.


The cake came out airy and just sweet enough - it was very tasty and we drank hot tea with it which was a great combination.