Family Night With Dinner and a Craft

This instructable is just the thing to liven up boring Friday nights at home. Family night is for any group of people that want to have a fun evening together. The first recipe is a crowd-favorite dinner dish, chicken fettuccine alfredo, that can be a group activity with some people helping with preparing the ingredients or helping to assemble the sauce itself.

After that recipe, we have a fun craft idea for the family with lots of room for creativity: slime. This simple craft can get messy and will definitely create some fun memories spending time together! Though there are many recipes for slime out there, this recipe uses contact lens solution instead of borax. Contact lens solution contains the same active ingredients without the harsh cleaning chemicals or chemical smell of borax.

Serves: 4–6 people

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup salted butter
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 whole chicken breasts
• ½ cup green onion (or scallions depending on the store)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 packet of any alfredo spice mix
• 12 oz cremini mushrooms
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 7 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¼ cup fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 12 oz package of fettuccine pasta
• ½ cup parmesan cheese

1. Wash the cremini mushrooms. Remove the stems and thinly slice the mushrooms and place them in a bowl.
2. Rinse the green onion. Discard the rubber band and any wilted leaves. Chop the green onions into horizontal “coins” that are about one-fourth-inch and place in a separate bowl.
3. Crush two cloves of garlic by placing them under the flat side of a knife and pressing the heel of your hand down on it. This will allow the outer skin to pull away.
4. Do a rough mince until the garlic is in small pieces. Put the minced garlic in the same bowl as the green onions.
5. Roughly chop the parsley to small pieces and put in a bowl. Measure out basil into the bowl with the parsley.

1. Take out two thawed chicken breasts and cut them into one-inch pieces.
2. Place the chicken into the same bowl as the green onion and garlic.
3. Start boiling a pot of water with at least six teaspoons of salt.
4. Open the diced tomato can and drain the liquid.
5. Measure out black pepper and the rest of the salt (1 teaspoon) and put in a small bowl.
6. Shred and measure the parmesan cheese.

1. Heat butter and oil at medium-high heat in a twelve-inch pan with high sides.
2. Once butter and oil are melted, add prepared chicken, green onion, and garlic to the pan.
3. Sauté until chicken is cooked through, indicated by the chicken turning white.

1. To the pan, stir in whipping cream and the contents of the alfredo spice packet.
2. At this point, the water should be boiling, so put in your fettuccine pasta for the time allotted on the packaging.
3. Add mushrooms, tomatoes, salt, and black pepper to the chicken mixture and mix together with a large spoon until combined into a sauce.
4. Bring the sauce mixture to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer the sauce for 3–5 minutes.

1. Check if pasta is ready. Taste a lucky fettuccine noodle and see if it is cooked to the texture that you like.
2. Drain pasta and toss the pasta with the sauce.
3. Stir parsley and basil into the sauce until combined.
4. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
5. Enjoy!

Yield: About two cups of slime

Ingredients:

• 1 7.625 oz bottle Elmer’s Washable School Glue
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons contact lens solution (a travel size bottle should provide enough solution for several experiments)
• 2–3 drops liquid food coloring (optional)
• 1–3 tablespoons glitter (optional)

• This experiment requires adult supervision due to the chemicals and non-ingestible materials involved.
• Make sure to wash your hands before and after playing with slime, and avoid touching your mouth while handling.
• Plastic or metal mixing bowls and spoons will work best.
• After use, soak these materials in water to prevent the glue from hardening while you wait to wash them.

1. Pour the bottle of glue into a mixing bowl.
2. (Optional) Personalize your slime: Add a few drops of your favorite color of food coloring. Then, mix until the color is spread evenly. If your color isn’t turning out how you’d like, try adding a bit more dye (a drop or two at a time). I didn’t like how this shade of green was turning out, so I ended up adding some blue food coloring to this mixture after the glitter.
3. (Optional) Add 1–3 tablespoons of glitter and stir. You can use different kinds and amounts of glitter for various effects. For my slime, I used 1 ½ tablespoons of fine blue glitter.

1. Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the mixture and stir until smooth.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of contact lens solution. Stir this mixture slowly. You’ll know it’s working when the slime begins to harden and become stringy. Continue stirring until the mixture begins to stick together and forms a ball.

1. Knead the slime between your hands until the slime is smooth, sticking to itself but not to your hands. If the slime is still sticky after a minute of kneading, add up to 1 tablespoon of contact lens solution, pouring in a little at a time and continuing to knead until it forms a nice ball.

1. Play with the slime! (Slime can be played with immediately or stored for later use.)
2. Cut the slime into sections, see who can stretch it the farthest, or mix it with other colors to create rainbow slime!
   1. Reminder, wash your hands before and after playing, and do not allow children to play with slime unsupervised.
3. The slime may grow stiff after a few minutes of extended usage. If this happens, let the slime sit for a few minutes. This should allow it time to regain its moldability. Alternatively, you can add another teaspoon of contact solution.
4. Store slime for later use: Slime should be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container or a sealed plastic bag. If stored properly, slime can last a week or more. If the slime smells bad or begins to develop mold, throw it out. You can revitalize stiff slime by adding more contact lenses solution. Start with a little at a time (adding up to a tablespoon of solution) and knead the mixture until it is stretchable again.