Dayton, Ohio Area Homeschool Adventure Bucket List

Welcome to My Once-every-few-years Blog Post. 😅 This is mostly for my reference, but I’m happy to share. Ha!
I may update it at times. It’s not complete.
Some things have the cost listed; some things don’t.
You’re welcome. 😆😇

The American Sign Museum (Cincinnati)

America’s Packard Museum *students free w/ ID*

Anthony-Thomas Chocolate Factory tour (Columbus; $2/12+ and $1/child)

Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm $12/adult

Boonshoft Museum of Discovery $ (library offers pass)

Brukner Nature Center

Charleston Falls

Cincinnati Museum Center

Cincinnati Zoo

Columbus Zoo

The Contemporary Dayton (formerly Dayton Visual Arts Center)

COSI (Columbus)

The Dayton Art Institute $ (library offers pass)

Dayton International Peace Museum *free*

Entertainment Junction

Erie Canal/Johnston Farm

The Funk Music Hall of Fame and Exhibition Center

The Gammon House

Glen Helen Raptor Center

The Harding Museum (Franklin)

Heritage Village (Sharonville)

Hertzler House

La Comedia Dinner Theater

Learning Tree Farm $5/person

Loveland Castle

Marmon Valley Farms

Miami Valley Military History Museum

Miamisburg Mound

Mound Cold War Discovery Center

Newport Aquarium

Ohio Caverns

Ohio History Museum (Columbus)

Patterson Homestead $5/person

Pioneer Village/Caesar Creek

Problem Historical Society

Pyramid Hill (Hamilton)

Quiet Harmony Ranch

Safari Junction (Eaton)

Serpent Mound

Springfield Museum of Art $5/adult, students free

Sunwatch Indian Village $

Veteran’s Memorial Museum (Germantown)

The Victoria Theater Discovery Series

Wild Hearts African Farm

The Wilds

Yaskawa Motoman robot tour

Young’s Jersey Dairy

Dayton Metroparks

• Aullwood Garden
• Carriage Hill (includes working farm)
• Cox Arboretum
• Deeds Point
• Eastwood
• Englewood
• Germantown 
• Hills & Dales
• Huffman
• Island
• Possum Creek
• Riverscape
• Sugarcreek
• Sunrise
• Taylorsville
• Twin Creek
• Wegerzyn Gardens
• Wesleyan

Aviation Trail

https://www.aviationtrailinc.org/copy-of-trail-sites

• 1a) Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center *free
• 1b) Aviation Trail Parachute Museum *free
• 1c) The Wright Cycle Company *free
• 2) Paul Laurence Dunbar House *free
• 3a) Wright Brothers Memorial (at WPAFB) *free
• 3b&c) Huffman Prairie Flying Field and Interpretive Center *free
• 4) Carillon Historical Park $
• 5) National Museum of the US Airforce *free
• 6) National Aviation Hall of Fame *free
• 7) Hawthorn Hill (Wrights’ Mansion) $
• 8) Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum
• 9) Wright “B” Flyer
• 10) Wright State University Paul Laurence Dunbar Library 
• 11) Historic WACO Field & Airplane Museum $
• 12) Armstrong Air & Space Museum $
• 13) Champaign Aviation Museum (CAM) *free, donations appreciated 
• 14) Grimes Flying Lab
• 15) Tri-state Warbird Museum $
• 16) Butler County Warbirds Inc *free
• 17) Sinclair National UAS Training and Certification Center *free

Paleo Chocolate Cake (Nut/Egg-Free,Vegan, AIP option)

Well, hello there, my delicious dream cake.
Paleo chocolate cake that actually tastes good and doesn’t require black magic.
I did it.

That is one happy 3.5 year old on her third and a half birthday. 🎂

Paleo Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease one 8″ round cake pan with coconut oil (or palm shortening).

Combine in medium bowl:

• 3/4 cup cassava flour
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon tapioca flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (***sub carob powder for AIP***)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix well.

Combine in large bowl:

• 6 tablespoons maple syrup
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons full fat coconut milk (I use boxed Aroy-D)
• 3/4 cup coconut oil (softened or melted)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Mix well. Batter will be thicker than traditional cake batter. Spread batter into cake pan and smooth with spatula.
Bake for 35-45 minutes. Cake will pull away from pan edges and lose its shine when done.

Frost as desired. (Personally, I used palm shortening with cocoa powder and maple syrup whipped up to a nice fluffy consistency. No, I didn’t measure. I was too excited to have my cake and eat it, too.)

Banana Flour Waffles (AIP/Paleo)

These waffles have the perfect texture! The best texture I’ve had in a baked good while being on the Autoimmune Protocol. The taste is not at all like a glutenous waffle, to be honest. BUT they are tasty – especially with coconut oil and maple syrup or coconut cream on top.

I have experimented a little bit to try and make them into pumpkin spice waffles, but haven’t perfected that yet. Open to suggestions. 😉

Ingredients

• 1 C banana flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 C coconut oil
• 1/3 C water

• 2 gelatin eggs (1/2 C water, 2 T gelatin powder)

 

First, prepare the 2 gelatin eggs. Beating until frothy.

Add all remaining ingredients to medium bowl or high-powered blender. Blend/mix well. Add prepared gelatin eggs and blend/mix just until mixed.

You may want to grease your waffle iron! These seem to take a bit longer than a standard waffle to cook, as well. You’ll know they’re ready when you try to lift the lid and there is little to no resistance (if there is a lot of resistance – STOP! you will tear your waffle).

Makes about 2 standard round waffles.

See that perfect texture?! They are crispy and delightful in my mouth!

Jellied Cranberry Sauce (Paleo/AIP/Low-FODMAP)

Deciding what to bring to a family Thanksgiving on a Low FODMAP AIP diet isn’t impossible, but it is hard.

I have always looked forward to my Grandma Cave’s jellied cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. Her recipe (that I have in her handwriting!) calls for a LOT of white sugar. And a packet of Jell-O. And other not SO bad things that I just can’t have right now (tasty tasty pecans, canned pineapple…). I really wanted to make something that would hit that Grandma’s-cranberry-sauce-shaped-hole in my stomach without compromising my health goals. Thanks to Grazed & Enthused for the helpful inspiration.

Also, a serving of this would be low-FODMAP. But don’t go crazy – it is still a sweet dish and more than 1 tablespoon of raisins would be a moderate dose of FODMAPs. I didn’t add the optional tigernuts (because I don’t have any at the moment), but this turned out AMAZING. My one year old was gobbling it up!

• 12 oz. Fresh Cranberries
• 1 C Bone Broth
• 3 T Maple Syrup (divided)
• 3 Mandarins, sectioned
• 1/4 C. Raisins
• 1/2 C Filtered Water (sub with more bone broth for more nutrient density!)
• 2 T *Real* Gelatin

Optional: chopped tigernuts, cinnamon, clove

Bring to a boil: cranberries, bone broth, 2 T maple syrup. Optional: add cinnamon and clove to taste for a more “fall spice” version. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. Stir occasionally.

While that’s simmering, chop mandarin sections – reserving 3-5 slices.

Remove cranberry mixture from heat. Stir in mandarins and raisins. Optional: chopped tigernuts would be a lovely addition here (Grandma Cave always made it with pecans! yum.).

In a small saucepan, heat 1/2 C filtered water until very hot, but not boiling. Add gelatin and 1 T maple syrup and stir well.

Pour gelatin mixture into cranberry mixture. Mix well and pour into serving dish. Lay reserved mandarin sections on top of mixture for visual appeal.

Refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours before serving. Up to 3 days in advance.

1st Place Chili

This chili won first place in the “classic” category at Ontario Christian Fellowship’s 2015 Chili Cook-off.

Ingredients

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano

In small bowl, mix all seasoning ingredients together.

Chili:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 (large) cans crushed tomatoes
• 2 (15 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 (small) can tomato paste
• 1 large onion – diced
• 2 (15 ounce) cans pinto beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans
• 1-2 (small) cans sliced mushrooms

In large pot, brown ground beef. Don’t drain fat. Add onion and sauté until onions become translucent. Transfer to slow cooker, add seasoning mix, and remaining chili ingredients. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

 

Cinnamon Pumpkin Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease 12 cup muffin tin.

Whisk together:

• 1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree
• ½ cup melted coconut oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Stir into the pumpkin mixture:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Stir in, mixing well after each cup:

• 2-1/4 cups flour

Scoop into muffin tin.

Whisk together:

• 1 part cinnamon
• 1 part sugar

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture on top of each cupcake.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

While they’re baking, whip up some drippy icing…

Beat (or whisk) until smooth(ish):

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Add and beat (or whisk) until smooth:

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 tablespoons almond milk (or coconut milk or probably any milk)
• 1 cup* powdered sugar (add in 1/4 cup portions)

Allow the cupcakes to cool enough to remove from pan. Place on serving dish.

Drizzle icing over top of cupcakes and allow to run down the sides.

 

 

*A little more powdered sugar might be necessary to get a thick and creamy consistency (think “cinnamon roll icing”)

Adapted from:

http://thesweet-toothlife.com/2014/09/dairy-free-cinnamon-sugar-pumpkin-muffins/

http://www.instructables.com/id/coconut-oil-frosting/

White Whole Wheat Blueberry Streusel Muffins

These muffins. They are perfect! Small Group seal of approval.

Blueberry season is over, I know (I just don’t want to admit it), but I still had about 1 cup left in my freezer and I had to come up with something to take to a gathering today. They are whole wheat and mostly refined sugar free. You could easily omit the streusel topping (but, hello, that’s my favorite part). Or you could experiment by subbing in Sucanut for the brown sugar – if you’re crunchy like that.

 

 

Photo by Nadia Prigoda-Lee

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White Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins 

with Streusel topping

Streusel Ingredients

• 1/4 C white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 C packed brown sugar (or Sucanut)
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 T butter (cold)

Muffin Ingredients

• 1 3/4 C white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 6 T butter, melted
• 2/3 C maple syrup
• 1/2 C milk (I used almond milk)
• 1 C blueberries (fresh or frozen)

 

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 12 regular-size muffin cups (I used pure non-hydrogenated lard) or use paper baking cups.

2. (Dry ingredients) In a medium bowl, mix together the  1 3/4 C flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

3. (Wet ingredients) In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, maple syrup, milk, and melted butter. Add dry ingredients to large bowl and stir just until moistened, but still lumpy. Gently fold in blueberries.

4. Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups.

5. For the streusel topping: In a small bowl, mix together the 1/4 C flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in 2 T cold butter using pastry blender (or a fork… or your fingers…) until crumbly.

6. Divide streusel topping evenly over the twelve unbaked muffins.

7.  Bake 15-20 minutes. Until golden brown or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes in pan. Remove from pan to cooling rack or serve warm. If using paper baking cups, remove immediately from pan.

 

 

 

Inspired by Betty Crocker and Framed Cooks