"Making life nicer"

[goldpendant]

Hi everyone,

New to preppers but must admit Coronavirus in Italy has got me thinking I need to take this at least a bit more seriously if we too went into lockdown for a month.

There are plenty of lists which I'm reading, so thanks for those. I was taken by a comment in one thread about making fudge, because with kids it would make life nicer.

So, what things, treats, baking, projects etc do you have stashed away to make life nicer (for you or for kids), should we all end us housebound for weeks at a time?

Chocolate, biscuits, Easter eggs, pop,crisps, sweets,

Lots of ordinary food they like as well.

Chilli and Lemon swirls or twirls or something . Suggested on here a few months back. We adore them in our house. Thank you to whoever suggested it. Price is all over the place 50p to 80p for a big bag. Often within the same week in the "Indian foods" aisle.

We make fudge, delicious and the ingredients are easy to store.

We also have cake mixes in, just the little silly ones but they do work with a frozen egg (poke the yolk before freezing) and they're a nice activity for youngsters.

If you have the Krusteaz pancake mix you can add an egg and you get waffle mix.

Grapes freeze well. Ideal for teething children and instead of ice cubes in wine. 🍷

Loads of board games no one ever plays....

Jelly/angel delight etc

Books

I guess they could sort through all the junk in the house if bored!

I have a lot of different 'sweet' moulds & my son loves making chocolates.

For kids entertainment I use the big bars of chocolate from Lidl (Fin Carre? I think it's called) & get white as well as milk chocolate.
It's less than 50p a bar & you can make quite a few chocolates from one.
Melt a bit in the microwave, coat the moulds & let it cool.
We fill them with random stuff such as peanut butter, fruit, Nutella or ice cream, or whatever else my son comes up with at the time.
Depending on how old kids are, you can do more complex designs incorporating stripes or swirls of white chocolate.
Then once filling is set if it needs to, just coat bottoms with chocolate, let that set & you have your own sweets.

The peanut butter ones are actually really nice.
They won't look as nice as properly made chocolate or have the perfect shine, snap etc..., but it keeps kids entertained for hours for very little cost & they look/taste okay too.

We also make Easter Eggs using moulds (they are cheap on Amazon) then pipe decorations on.

Once you've made them, you have a treat to give them too.

Also things like Ninjabread or Gingerbread men (depending on your cutters) take up time both with the making & the decorating.

My son also spends hours designing the perfect gift box to put sweets & biscuits in & making it. (This usually involves zombies in his case it doesn't have to be 'girly')
Cost being felt pens & some light card plus a bit of paper for the contents sheet like you get in a box of chocolates sometimes.

We also have quite a lot of kits to make all sorts of things from animations, lino printing or tie dye, to sets to build lots of different working circuits if you get them right or mechanical models, remote controlled robots etc... chemistry kits (we get monthly) to do experiments with VR lessons & quite a few unopened Lego sets which would each take a couple of days to construct.

Honestly though as we are EHE, my son would just keep doing his normal lessons for all the academic stuff & just not go to the group activities.
There are plenty of online resources for every subject at every level you can imagine.
Look at places like Khan Academy for a start (free) or some of the many free sites that offer lesson plans & activities to teachers.
Just because they are at home, doesn't mean they can't do a project on something or other.
Keeps them occupied.

I won't make fudge with kids because of the high temperatures involved.

"I won't make fudge with kids because of the high temperatures involved"

Depends on the age of the kids. A shame to miss out on an opportunity to teach kitchen safety to age appropriate children. Consider equipping your children with these skills part of their life prepping once they are old enough to understand risk and instructions.

@SharpieInThe

True, but I don't let kids who are not tall enough to have their chin above the top of the pot as a minimum deal with boiling sugar.

My son is still primary school age for a few years yet so I think fudge can wait.

The pioneer woman has a simple fudge recipe just chocolate chips and condensed milk. She puts peppermint sweets on top. We made it over Christmas for gifts and it was a big hit

I keep trying to stockpile chocolate

I’ve been a bought looks of seeds for planting today to keep the 3 year old occupied in the garden.

Try slow cooker fudge. Temp doesnt go that high. Dead easy and so tasty x

Jelly and tinned fruit (my daughter is only 2 so shes easily pleased!)
Angel delight or custard can be made with UHT milk.
Non food crafts - we have loads of pom poms and pva and that sort of thing and some books with craft ideas in.
Sticker activity books, new colouring books and playdoh. Cress seeds which can be grown on damp kitchen roll.

Think of treats that can be made economically, scones, rock buns, jam tarts for example. You don't want to be making a cake that requires four eggs if you are trying to ration your limited supplies.
The same goes for things like puddings to keep spirits up, bread & butter pudding, Queen of Puddings or Poor Knights of Windsor could be made with minimal ingredients.