Ever since I came into contact with the folks from the Quaker Chewy Afterschool Rocks program and the After School Alliance, I’ve been trying to think of ways to be more involved with my kids when they get back home from school. I took some time to search through the afterschool toolkit for parents and teachers and came across so many ideas to make afterschool time special. The ideas that I loved the most, though, revolved around cooking. I’ve said time and time again how I think cooking with your kids is teaching them such a vital, lifelong skill and builds strong bonds within the family as well.

Life is crazy around the holidays, and I know how having your kids help you in the kitchen is not always the quickest or easiest route to getting things done, but when time is tight and you want to engage your kids and get some of your holiday baking done at the same time, look to afterschool time to do both.

I needed to make some cookies for a Thanksgiving teacher event, so I decided it would be the perfect project to have my kids help me with.

We got busy in the kitchen. Thankfully this recipe for Quaker’s Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies required two sticks of butter because unwrapping the sticks of butter seems to always be something the girls bicker about when one or the other gets to do it. Who knew opening butter could be so fun? Look at how intense these gals are at getting their task done!

And of course, their next favorite part… adding the sugar. By the way, thank you sooooo much, Auntie Sandie, for teaching them about eating sugar balls!

It is usually after the sugar is all in and the chance of yummy tastes is gone that my sugar lovers lose interest.

Thank goodness Jacob likes to stick around for the rest of the dirty work. He’s pretty darn good at dumping ingredients in and now that he’s in 3rd grade, he can do most of a fairly straightforward recipe without a lot of instruction from me.

Word got out that the dough was ready. Funny how suddenly everyone flocks to the kitchen for a taste when they hear that!

The cookies are in the oven now, so what to do with all that time we have to spend waiting? Well, Leah seemed to have a pretty grand old time with the Quaker Oats container.

And the 15 minutes the cookies took to bake was the perfect amount of time to get homework done for the night!

The cookies are done and now, we have accomplished several goals. We’ve spent some quality afterschool time together in the kitchen. We’ve made a delicious afterschool snack and my Thanksgiving cookies for the school staff are made.

(That is, if the cookies last long enough. These are some darn good cookies… I have to say I’ve been guilty of sneaking a bite here and there!)

Recipe: Quaker Great Pumpkin Cookies (from the Quaker Oats Website)

• 2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1/2  pound (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1  cup granulated sugar
• 1  cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1  cup LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1  large egg
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4  cup chopped walnuts (we omitted)
• 3/4  cup raisins (we omitted)
• Decorating icings, semi-sweet chocolate chips, candies, raisins or nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease baking sheets.

In medium bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture; mix well. Stir in nuts and raisins (we omitted). Drop 1/4 cup dough onto prepared baking sheet; spread into 3-inch circle or oval. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake 14 to 16 minutes or until cookies are firm and lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets; remove to wire racks. Cool completely. Decorate as desired with icing, chips, candies, raisins or nuts. Makes 20 large cookies.

I have been compensated by Quaker Chewy to be a partner with this great program, however, any opinions stated within this post are my own.

The post Afterschool Cooking {Recipe – Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

For the most part of this school year, my kids have come home to me on a conference call, me on the computer working on a project or me telling them “just one more minute” while I finished up my last little bit of work for the day. To them, after school meant coming in the door, grabbing a snack and finding something to occupy themselves until I could wrap up. I am not proud of this at all, which is why I recently decided to leave my recruiting job to focus on my family while they are young enough to want me to focus on them.

This is why when a representative from Quaker Chewy contacted me the other day about partnering with them to get the word out about the After School Alliance and the Quaker Chewy After School Rocks program I was thrilled. Reconnecting with my kids, especially during the precious after school hours, is something I wanted to focus on.

Quaker Chewy has partnered with the Afterschool Alliance to study and improve how kids spend their time after school in an effort to help each child have a positive after school experience. Whether children are sent to an organized after school program or they come home to a parent or guardian, the partnership between Quaker Chewy and the Afterschool Alliance is providing necessary resources and activities to make that time quality. As a part of their partnership, Quaker Chewy and the Afterschool Alliance have created a free downloadable Afterschool Toolkit for parents and teachers. Check it out by clicking on this link and scrolling to the very bottom.

After reviewing the Afterschool Toolkit I decided to plan some after school activities with my kids that would help us to reconnect after a long day as well as be fun for them so they could unwind after being “on” all day at school. Considering it is fall, and the ground is covered with leaves that have fallen from the trees, we decided our first after school activity would be to do some leaf rubbing. Simple, fun, and each one of my kids (ages 8, 6, 4 and 1) could participate in their own way.

Step one was to get outside and go on a leaf hunt. I told the kids to pick up some of the biggest leaves they could find. As the three older ones hunted for leaves, one little person, who shall remain nameless, decided all she wanted to do was attempt an escape from this crazy family.

Once the leaves were gathered, we brought them inside, grabbed some plain white copy paper and some crayons and began our project. Leaf rubbing is really simple… place the leaf underneath your paper then with the side of a crayon, rub / color over on the paper over the leaf. You’ll soon start to see the outline of the leaf, including the veins, show up on the paper. It makes for a really beautiful piece of artwork for your kids!

Of course, if you have as many kids as I do, you are bound to find one who is only there for the food. What can you do?

I’m excited to announce that Quaker has given me several After School Kits to do what I’d like to with. I’ve decided to share some of them with you to get inspired to make after school time, quality time! 7 Dine & Dish readers will win 1 kit each. Each kit includes:

• 1 Quaker Afterschool Rocks T-Shirt
• 1 $10 iTunes gift card
• 1 pack of Crayola Colored pencils
• 1 Composition Notebook
• 1 coupon for a FREE box of Quaker Chewy Granola Bars
• 1 Canvas tote bag

To win, in the comment section of this post, share what your favorite after school activity was when you were growing up. Entries must be in by midnight CST on Sunday, November 14th. I will use Random.org to choose the 7 winners. You can enter as many times as you’d like… no limits!

Disclaimer:

This promotion is solely sponsored by Dine & Dish and has not been endorsed or approved by PepsiCo, Inc. or its subsidiaries or affiliates.  By entering, you agree to look solely to Dine & Dish for any claims in connection therewith, and not to PepsiCo, Inc. or its subsidiaries or affiliates.

I have been compensated by Quaker Chewy to be a partner with this great program, however, any opinions stated within this post are my own.

The post Quaker Chewy After School Rocks Giveaway appeared first on Dine and Dish.