Plant with me!

Quarantine check in day# 19.

I feel like my head is just above water here. I’m constantly shuffling between my mom hat, teacher hat, and professional colleague hat. Just this morning I attended a Zoom meeting with a business shirt on top and sweat pants on the bottom—while trying to keep my 3 yr old within arm’s distance of my laptop with a smile on my face. I’m also trying to figure out how the heck I’m going to teach my students online, get my own kids to learn from their teachers online when they’ve never used a computer before, keep up with the virtual trainings, and maybe keep the house from burning down. Does that make sense? Does that sound dizzying? It absolutely is. We were supposed to go back to our school sites on April 6th, and then it was pushed to May 1st, now it’s indefinite. The future was starting to look real grim here.

Then I stumbled on a quote that really spoke to me.

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”.

Sending out these seed packets!

It really made me stop, take a breather, and think. I am grateful for mine and my family’s health and the ability to continue nourishing it. As apocalyptic as everything seems right now, I do believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel—and I really want to put some positivity out there by emphasizing on the belief of tomorrow. I felt that I wanted to offer something bright and hopeful to this mom community, as little as it might be. So I’ve combined all of my different hats and, with help from my best mom friends, created these little packets. Just look at that beautiful label my friend Sasha made! Sasha is one of my best mom friends and she co-founded our business, Loralei & Co., with me! She is very talented and also passionate about working with kids—she’s a pediatric nurse practitioner!

Each packet contains a compressed pellet and vegetable seeds —either zucchini, tomatoes, or green beans. I would love to send a packet to you and your little one so you can grow a garden or add to one you might already have!

And of course, being a teacher, I made a lesson plan and additional activities to go along with it. I created two different types of coloring pages, one for Pre-K and under and the other for Kindergarteners and up. I hope you enjoy these packets and coloring pages. They were a true labor of love and the very first time I’ve drawn an actual coloring page. :)

Please email us for your free packet of seeds, and let us know which seeds you would like!

You can download the lesson plan and coloring pages here:

Plant with Me Lesson Plan

Green Bean Coloring Page // Green Bean Facts Coloring Page

Tomato Coloring Page // Tomato Facts Coloring Page

Zucchini Coloring Page // Zucchini Facts Coloring Page

I also have two very special and very little guests who wanted to provide a tutorial for this activity. Enjoy!

Easy Pizza Snacks!

Pizza Bagels

We are lovers of pizza anything in this household. Even the good ol’ ready-in-2-minutes Hot Pocket!

Being said pizza-lovers, there are certain kitchen “staples” that we have: pepperoni, marinara, and mozzarella cheese. I’m pretty sure as a kid these ingredients were also found in my childhood home. Aside from rice, one of the first things I remember making was, what my dad called, a “poor man’s pizza”. It consisted of white bread topped with marinara, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni pizza. Pop that sucker in a toaster oven for 5 minutes, and voila, PIZZA!

Seriously, you could put those ingredients on practically any carb and you’ll have an easy snack. French bread, bagels, pita bread. Your pizza dreams are limitless. One of our household favorites is a la bagel!

We love getting packs of mini bagels and sprinkling these ingredients on top. Just like my poor man’s pizza, I toss it in our toaster oven for 5 minutes, and it’s pizza perfection.

Side note: Our particular toaster oven is AMAZING! I came across it while looking for a dehydrator and saw that it could function as several kitchen appliances I already had. Super important if you’re needing more counter space! It’s the GoWISE Deluxe 15-in-1 that’s an air fryer, rotisserie, dehydrator, toaster oven, plus many more specs that I haven’t tried. So far we’ve rotisseried cornish hen, dehydrated tomatoes and cranberries, and made jerky! Obviously, we’ve also used it as a classic toaster oven for these pizza babies. Laundry and Lashes is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, Amazon, the Amazon logo, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or it’s affiliates.

Something I really wanted to recreate was the classic pizza hot pocket. Is it just me or do those bring you back to your childhood? As a 90’s kid, I grew up on these after school treats! Sadly, we’re acknowledging that these frozen foods aren’t exactly the best for you. Okay, pizza in general isn’t that good for you, but at least ours is slightly healthier. Right? A little bit?

Anyways, here’s a simple way to make a wonderfully flaky and super yummy hot pocket!

Ingredients:

• Puff Pastry Sheets (can be found next to the ready made pie crusts)

• Organic Marinara (trying to be “healthy” here!)

• Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

• Pepperoni Slices, quartered

• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter

• Garlic Salt w/ Parsley to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat a conventional oven to 375 'F

2. Roll out the puff pastry and cut into 6 equal rectangular pieces

3. Spread 2 spoonfuls of marinara on 3 of the puff pastry sheets

4. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and quartered pepperoni on top of the marinara

5. Place the remaining 3 pastry sheets on top of each of the sheets that are covered in cheese, etc.

6. Press the sides together and crimp with a fork (crimp well and fold if needed to prevent the ingredients from coming out when cooking)

7. Create 3 slits in the middle of each pizza pocket (this creates a vent so that the ingredients don’t burst out)

8. Brush melted butter on top and sprinkle some garlic salt and parsley if desired

9. Pop them in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (or until gold and flaky)

10. Let them cool a bit before eating!

Sisi and I made something similar to a "pizza pocket", which is the perfect after school snack.

These babies were made in the toaster oven

I tried using my GoWISE for these not too long ago, but I’ll need to figure out the appropriate setting. So far, placing the rack at the bottom (make sure to also place a pan to catch any cheese that’s escaped!) and then setting it to Bake for 20 min. at a temperature of 380 seems to work! This unit doesn’t adjust in 5 degree increments, which is kind of a bummer.

Whatever doesn’t get baked can be wrapped in parchment paper, put into a container, and placed in the freezer for the following day. And yes, I totally realize this brings us full circle.