Category: Food

Unique, Weird, Special…..

We are a “unique” family.

We all have things that make us “special”.

It’s funny that the same things that can make you special, can also make you weird.

Here is one example of Angelica’s most recent “weirdness”…….

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Who knew that dinner could be so “artistic” and “creative” looking?

What do you do that’s “weird” or “special” or “unique”?

I like to make lists…in fact, I’ve been known to make a list of all the different lists that I need to make……I like to think that makes me special as opposed to strange, but I know that other’s might disagree.

Cooking With Siah

Yesterday Siah and I had an “at home” day.

There was a big important meeting at the office and while I could have gone in and taken Siah with me – I believe the stress level would have been quite high and having an active two year old racing around would have only added to any stress and really just wouldn’t have been necessary.

So, we stayed home!

And, we decided to cook up a storm…..well, as much of a storm as a two year old can handle.

We made some Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies and I have to say that these cookies have NEVER failed me. The recipe is (as far as I’m concerned) fool proof.

Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies

They are made with honey so can’t be considered truly vegan although they would be vegetarian, BUT regardless so SO delicious.

Here is the recipe…

Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies

Pre-heat oven to 375*F
Cook for 10-12 minutes

½ cup Butter (I use Earth Balance)
¾ cup Honey
1 Banana
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Nutmeg
¼ tsp Salt
1 cup Grated Zucchini
1 cup Oatmeal

1. Cream the butter & Honey together
2. Add the Banana and Beat well
3. Combine Dry ingredients and add alternating with the zucchini into the mixture
4. Stir in the Oatmeal
5. Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet
6. Bake for 10-12 mins

They are chewy and moist and almost muffin like. In fact, I have just dumped the batter into muffin tins before and they are equally delicious, just bigger.

While our cookies were baking, we decided to throw together a Hot and Sour Soup that I’ve been meaning to try out.

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I’d link to the recipe, BUT….i have no idea where I got the recipe from….I was looking for crockpot soup ideas and found this one and cut and paste it into a word doc and well…..ya!

But, here is the recipe that I used, which was slightly (well, actually – significantly) adapted from the original.

Hot and Sour Soup

4 cups of Chicken Broth
4 cups of Water
4 T of Soy Sauce
4 T of Rice Wine Vinegar
1 T of Sesame Oil
1/2 t of Red Pepper Flakes
1 can drained sliced water chesnuts
half a medium zucchini
2 carrots
1 package of firm tofu cut into cubes (approx 1.5 cups)

I’d have added green onions if I had any, but I didn’t….so this is what we threw together.

It simmered for a while and was AMAZING. Siah thought it was a bit spicy, but you could reduce the pepper flakes if you didn’t want it too spicy. If you like Hot and Sour soup, try it….so easy. Just throw together and let simmer….then serve.

We had a great time baking and cooking together. I love spending time with my kids and I feel like involving them in the “making” process gives them buy in especially when it comes to food.

I find that they feel a sense of ownership regarding what they’ve created and so its a great way to introduce new tastes, smells and textures.

And even though Siah is only two, he was a great help. He stirred the cookie batter in between additions and only once stuck the spoon to my shirt….and he dumped all the liquids into the pot after I measured them out and then added the tofu, zucchini and carrots in for me.

Yes, there was mess, but I find that it really wasn’t that big of a mess, took little to no effort to clean up (above and beyond what I would have created in making the cookies and soup), it’s quality time together AND….I’m teaching him from a young age to enjoy cooking; and to cook delicious, healthy foods.

Those things are well worth any amount of mess that the two of us might create together.

Not Quite a Month Of Meals

I sat down yesterday and planned out the rest of the months worth of meals.

It wasn’t intentional, but once I did the next 2 weeks, I realized that there were only 4 more days left unplanned in the month and they were looking a little lonely and so I just chose 4 more meals, threw them in there and TA DA! I don’t have to think about meal planning until May! Yah! That’s one less thing in my brain that’s rattling around taking up space and energy.

This last week of meals got shifted around a bit, but that’s one of the nice things about meal planning is that based on time or necessity, you can be flexible with your meal plans and move or change things up a bit, BUT….if you need to, you can just stick with the already laid out plan and not have to do ANY thinking.

I had a bit of a harder time coming up with these next couple of weeks of meals, and I think that has more to do with me feeling a bit tired, but I’m also feeling a bit icky and that doesn’t exactly lead to WANTING to eat and plan meals.

We need to pick up a few things from the store to make this week work, and also to stock up on kids lunch type thingys. But I do have all we’ll need for meat and so this weeks shop should be not too expensive.

Here are the plans for this weeks menu:

Monday: Bar-B-Qued Steak & Potatoes and veggies (We had homemade soup on Sat as it was quick and easy)
Tuesday: Veggie Stirfry with Pecans over rice
Wednesday: Roast Chicken, Potatoes, and Veggies
Thursday: Almond Chicken with Rice
Friday: Nacho’s
Saturday: Spaghetti & Salad with Garlic bread
Sunday: Lunch out with Family & Friends
Monday: Fish & Rice with Veggies

This is quite a busy (schedule wise) week and so I’m hoping that everything works out well this week.

As always, I continue to look for new recipe’s that are quick and easy to make, so let me know if you have any family favorites.

Meal Planning Success

So, the weekend before last, the kids and I sat down and planned out two weeks of meals.

It worked out amazingly, as it always does BUT…having then get involved in choosing the meals did actually inspire them to help out even more. They pitched in on the meals that they personally chose and it made it much easier for me. YAH!

We managed to make it the ENTIRE WEEK without one restaurant/fast food/quick pick up meal that was AMAZING!

Not only did we eat healthy, but we managed to save a bit of extra money which is always a nice bonus AND….we sat down at the dinner table every night.

We try to do this most nights, but when tired, overwhelmed and running last minute for meals, there are times when we throw some crap food in front of the kids and turn a movie on the computer and let it entertain them for a bit.

It’s our sanity saver in rushed times….although, to know that with a little bit of planning we can avoid the rush and stress and also get in some great family time and conversation…..I like that much better.

This week the meal schedule is

Sunday: Roast Chicken, potatoes, carrots and asparagus with gravy and Yorkshire pudding

This was Geli’s birthday dinner and is her FAVORITE MEAL. Here’s a picture of the DELICIOUS MEAL before the gravy was smothered on….

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Monday: Ham, Pineapple & Veggie Kabob’s

We cooked these on the Bar-B-Que and they were every bit as delicious as they sound.

Tuesday: Fish and Rice with Kale

We had a little salmon and a little tilapia. I have some who don’t like one or the other and some who like both and so I usually just make a few pieces of each and then let the kids pick and choose.

Wednesday: Taco’s (Beans, Elk, Goat Cheese, Lettuce, Peppers, Soy Sour Cream, Salsa)

This is what was planned but as I posted about last night……even my best efforts at planning can get all bunged up by the amazing-ness that is ADD/ADHD. We had Mc Pukes for dinner!

Thursday: Bar-B-Que Chicken with potatoes and veggies
Friday: Homemade Pizza (for Geli’s Birthday Party)
Saturday: Steak & Potatoes and Salad
Sunday: Soup & Sandwiches

I’m hoping that aside from the mid week glitch, that we’ll be able to keep things moving forward and hopefully stress free (when it comes to dinner’s). I need to plan for the next few weeks to keep the momentum going.

What are your favorite “go to” meals? I’d love some new suggestions?

LIttle Bit ‘O This and a Little Bit ‘O That

I’m sitting on the main level of my house killing time listening to my baby scream his head off because he,
“WAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNTTTTTSSSSSS MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMAAAAAAA!” and seeing as he is mostly over the whole measles thingy and I’m so tired of his incessant night waking, we have started to institute the

Back to Bed, Baby! Initiative.

This involves getting up every time he wakes up and putting him back in his own bed. He is in a bed, and so he can easily get out and the biggest issue that we have is not even him coming to our bed in the middle of the night.

The biggest issue is the fact that since the while measles thing, he’s been waking up around 11 or 12 and screaming for no reason that we can figure out. He is quite verbal (as in everyone who hears him speak can’t believe he’s only 2 years old) and his language skills are quite advanced and so if he so desired, he could tell us if there was an issue…..I think that he’s OVERTIRED and can’t even really handle himself. You should see the dark circles he’s currently sporting under his eyes. Poor Baby.

The 11-midnight scream fest comes in a close second in the frustration factor. The number one issue is that he’s decided that regardless of whether we let him sleep with us or if we put him back in to his own bed, around 2am, he wakes up and then is basically restless and awake from 2am until after 5am. This time usually involves TONS of thrashing around. Crying because the covers are on. Crying because the covers are off. Kicking mommy and daddy in the head/stomach/back/whatever happens to be closest to the thrashing feet. Crying because we won’t let him watch a movie. Crying because he wants to go to the bathroom. Crying because he doesn’t want to go to the bathroom. Basically, there is lots of crying and very little sleep.

And so, it is time to learn how to sleep again.

This likely means that we will get even less sleep over the next 3-4 nights as we sleep train him to stay asleep or at the very least, to once again stay on his bed. YUCK! but it will be so worth it by next weekend when we are all sleeping soundly. I hope I’ve not jinxed it by saying that.

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It was my baby girl’s 13th Birthday today. Angelica became a teenager today. I’m still a a bit amazed that I have a teenager and yet….it’s really not that different feeling from yesterday as she was quick to tell me. Time sure flies doesn’t it.

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Jon and Jeremy went to church today and Xani and Siah and I stayed home. Siah’s still officially within the contagious time period and Xani was coughing like a mad woman. We made coffee cake and an egg/hashbrown hash-type breakfast. We cleaned the kitchen and then sewed like crazy.

I’ll be showing you over the next little bit some of the fun things that I made. Xani made 2 pillows and she did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.

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We’ve filled and hidden the kid’s Easter Baskets and tomorrow morning we’ll have a treasure hunt for the kids. They are looking forward to it and if it weren’t for Geli’s birthday being today we probably would have done them today, but I wanted to make her birthday special. We had her favorite meal of roast chicken, and potatoes, with carrots and asparagus and gravy AND…..Yorkshire Pudding. And she was a very happy girl. We’ve still not given her a gift or even had a cake so I’m not sure how special of a day it was, but ….well…….ya know……it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?

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I’m still trying to come up with a fun activity for us to do as a family tomorrow……ya know, one that involves being trapped inside the house with a contagious child….ya! should be fun! It’s been a long LOOOOOOOOOONG week and I still have a few days left to go.

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The baby has been making the funniest movements. I’ve been bent over the sewing machine and apparently, he didn’t like being squished because he kept trying to streeeeeeeeeeeeetch out and kept kicking out the sides of my body towards my back. It felt so weird, and yet……….TOTALLY AMAZING. Baby movements are the best thing ever.

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Some people from our complex just had a stillborn at 24 weeks. One week shy of when Nathaniel was born. My heart os breaking for them and all they are going through right now. I only hope that I can, in some small way, reach out and be a support or comfort to them. I’m feeling stressed that I’m pregnant, though and am feeling cautious as to how that might make them feel. So many sad conflicting emotions. In some ways, it’s like reliving the whole loss over again. So SO sad!

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Well, after half an hour, it’s quiet and so I’m gonna sign off and head up stairs to bed. I hope you all had a great Easter Sunday with great food and hopefully lots of chocolate…….

Getting the Kids Involved

I have a 2 week meal plan.

I posted a while ago about wanting to try planning a month of meals and have never gotten around to actually making it happen.

I still believe that it’s a good idea and would like to test it out soon.

I am also aware that soon I shall have a newborn and all the fun and sleeplessness that brings.

As a general rule, I expect my children to help out around the house. I like to think that I have a pretty good balance or at the very least that I’m attempting to have a pretty good balance when it comes to allowing my kids to just be kids, but at the same time learning valuable life lessons.

All 3 of the older kids know how to do laundry from picking up the dirty clothes all the way through to putting the clean clothes back into their drawers. This does not mean that they always do their own laundry, nor do they always put their dirty clothes into the dirty clothes hamper, nor do they always put their clean folded clothes into their drawers, BUT….that is the goal and we manage to accomplish this a decent portion of the time.

All three of the kids also know how to cook and while Angelica and Alexandra obviously know more than Jeremy does, I am confident that all three of them could put together a decent meal with very little prompting using both the stove and the oven and having a balance of veggies, carbs and protein in the meal. This is not to say that if we had a box of sugar cereal in the cupboard that they would bypass the sugar cereal to have a well balanced meal….no, they are actually normal kids, BUT, they do know HOW to prepare a balanced, nutritious and delicious meal AND…..they regularly get the opportunity to grow these skills.

Each kid helps out with making meals and with cleaning up after them about twice a week. Even Siah gets in on the action in whatever small ways he can. That kid can help to make a mean batch of pancakes, let me tell you.

I know that with the new baby coming that I will need the kids to pitch in and help out, maybe even more than they are right now…

I don’t want it to feel like I’m “dumping” anything on them when the baby comes and so I’d rather start preparing them now so that when the baby does come….it’s just a normal part of their lives and responsibilities.

I had the three older kids sit down with me on Sunday night and we planned out the next 2 weeks of meals. They each got to pick their favorites and which nights we would make them on and I think that also helps for them to feel invested in this concept of meal planning.

They are constantly asking what’s for dinner anyway and so now we have the next two weeks planned out and listed on our big fridge calendar and the kids are excited to help out on their nights to be able to make their favorite meals.

Here is what we had/have planned for this week

Monday: Homemade Chili and Rice

Tuesday: Chicken and Bean Fajita’s

Wednesday: Beef and Broccoli

Thursday: Almond Chicken and Veggies over Rice

Friday: Roast Chicken with Potatoes & Veggies

Saturday: Nacho’s

Sunday: Bar-B-Que Chicken and Potatoes and Salad

I love that the kids are excited about helping out. It makes such a HUGE difference that they have “buy-in”. I’m looking forward to seeing how this idea plays out.

Again, it’s not that my kids are perfect, and they have their days when nothing seems to go right for them and they melt down regardless of how excited they were at one point, but when they are looking forward to something and it was their choice…..there are a lot less break downs, melt downs and flip outs. And that makes for a much less stressed and a much more peace filled environment.

Do you have a meal plan? Do you involve your kids and if so, how? What seems to work best for you?

If This Was An Olympic Event……

I have spent the day baking and now my feet feel like the bones are trying to poke through the skin. Yah, they hurt!

The kids have been wanting snacks and treats and we’ve been buying way too much “garbage” from the store.

By garbage, I mean, cookies and crackers and other colorful, chemical-filled crap. I cringe every time I put a box into my shopping cart. I hate the cost. I hate the chemicals. I hate the massive amounts of sugar. I hate the excessive packaging. I just hate buying it, and yet recently….I’ve been tired and busy and busy and tired and well…….enough is enough.

This weekend has worked out nicely that the kids got both Friday and Monday off AND we had nothing planned for today and we are not having anyone over for lunch tomorrow and so aside from a roasted chicken dinner with potatoes, carrots, gravy and salad (I’m already drooling over tomorrow’s lunch) we have a pretty quiet, normal day tomorrow.

All of that adds up to a mostly relaxing weekend.

I had thought that I’d get the house a bit tidier than it currently is, but between tomorrow afternoon and Monday morning – it should be back into shape.

Yesterday the girls and I planned out that we’d bake like crazy today, in the hopes of stocking the freezer with enough goodies to keep us going for a while. Our list was WAY longer than what was actually possible to accomplish in one day, but it helped to have something to pick through while we were working our way throughout the day.

I managed to bake 4 loaves of Spelt bread, and 4 loaves of Kamut bread.

Kamut / Spelt Loaves

The Spelt Loaves rose amazingly, but the Kamut was a bit of a flop. The dough didn’t feel right while I was working with it, so I’ll try again and might even look for a Kamut Flour recipe. We ate one of the Spelt loaves for dinner and the kids LOVED it. We’ll slice them all up with our slicer and then keep one out to use, and freeze the rest.

I also made a ton of Soda Crackers using the Spelt flour.

Spelt Soda Crackers

They are a little fluffier than a soda cracker from the store, but that was also eating them fresh and hot. I added some garlic powder to the mix and then sprinkled salt on top of them before cooking, so they have some flavor. We tried some tonight with meat and cheese and pickles and again…..they were a big hit. I think the kids will enjoy them in their lunches or as snacks and they were so SO easy to make.

Xandra and I whipped up 3 batches of cookies. We made gingersnaps, oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

Gingersnaps, Oatmeal & Choco Chip

The gingersnaps were the only thing today that were not vegan. I used honey instead of sugar. Everything else was made with Earth Balance Spread instead of butter, Ener-G Egg Replacer instead of eggs and Oat Milk where it called for milk. This is to accomodate Siah’s egg and dairy allergy. Everything still tastes amazing and turned out fabulously (minus the Kamut bread, but that has nothing to do with the substitutes and all to do with the flour being a heavier/denser weight. AND….it’ll still make great toasted garlic bread.).

Each batch of cookies made over 4 dozen cookies and I froze 3 dozen and baked the rest. Here they are ready for the freezer.

Frozen Cookie Dough

I love them like this because now when we want cookies…..we just have to pull out a dozen, let them sit on the cookie tray for about 5-10 minutes while the oven is pre-heating and VOILA! Fresh delicious cookies!

I also made a Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf (my FAVORITE!) but I didn’t get a picture of it…it was cooking and I uploaded these before it was finished cooking.

I also made one more batch of bread (4 loaves worth), BUT…..this time, instead of regular bread – I made one loaf of Cinnamon Bread. I also made 16 Cinnamon Buns. Here they are rising. They were about twice this size when they were finished……….

Spelt Cinnamon Rolls

We’ll probably have some for breakfast tomorrow. I also made a bunch of regular buns. I figured I could freeze half of them and with the rest, the kids could use them for lunches. They are on the smaller side so a perfect kid lunch size. Here they are in the prep stage…….

Buns with a view

I love my apron. I don’t often wear it, but on “messy, flour-y days” it does a great job of keeping me from being an absolute mess as I tend to fluff a lot of flour around and also to wipe my hands all over myself.

Any guesses as to how far along I am? If ya know…..then don’t spoil it for others! M’Kay? Thanks! You could always throw out a guess to try and throw others off? Or not?!?

Here are some facts for you. This is pregnancy #9. I have just recently stopped barfing all day. This will be our 5th child that we bring home. I’m up 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I do still feel a bit queasy throughout the day and am still barfing most mornings.

Does that make it any easier or more confusing? Oh well, happy guessing!

Planning and Contemplating

We’ve been pretty good about weekly meal planning for the last 3 weeks.

This past Monday while grocery shopping, Jon made a comment about how it would be nice to have a 2 week schedule laid out and to be able to shop for the staples at one time and then to just be able to do a weekly produce run.

I’ve been thinking about this more and more.

it would be so nice to be able to do a big shop twice a month and to not have to take a portion of every Monday’s (our day off) grocery shopping.

This week’s menu looks/ed like this:

Monday: Homemade Turkey Soup and Salad

Tuesday: Taco’s (beans – for me, ground elk, cheese, lettuce, peppers, salsa)

Wednesday: Ham and Rice and peas

Thursday: Homemade Lasagna and Salad

Friday: Salmon/Tilapia and Quinoa with Brocooli and Cauliflower

Saturday: Scrounge Night

Sunday: Roast Chicken, Potatoes, Carrots, Peas, Salad

I think that I’m gonna plan out next week’s meals and then look at the 4 weeks of meals and plan out a months worth of meals ahead of time. Then I’ll plan out what I need to pick up for 2 weeks worth of staples and print that out to shop with. I’m still working out the best way to be able to add in those things that we run out of, but I’m hoping that this will help to cut down on the number of trips that we need to take in a month.

We’ll see if this works out in as well as I’m hoping it does.

Meal Planning

The Fall was a bit of a crap shoot as far as my health goes and this last bit of time (since New Years) has been the LONGEST stretch of time in a row that I’ve not been sick.

It’s been an AWESOME 3 weeks!

I’m back on track with planning meals, which SO HELPS us out.

And so, because I know that you are desperate to know what we’re eating this week………Here we go!

Monday – Tilapia, Brown Rice and Peas (Jon made this meal, hence the unimaginative veggie selection, but kudos for actually making the “healthy” 45 minute rice)

Tuesday – Chicken and Rice Casserole, Spinach and Cauliflower

Wednesday – Roast Pork with Potatoes, Broccoli and Carrots

Thursday – Spaghetti with Brown Rice Noodles

Friday – Meatless Taco’s

Saturday – Homemade French Fried Potatoes and Chicken Tenders

Sunday – Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots, Peas, Salad

I think that I should plan from Tuesday to Monday because Monday will typically be the “planning/shopping” day as it’s our day off, but for now….this works.

So far, we are two for two and they have been GREAT MEALS that everyone has DEVOURED!

Do you have any great suggestions for one dish meals or quick and easy meals that you LOVE!?!?!?!

I just have to be able to adapt it somehow to make it egg and dairy free……Stupid allergies!

Another Monday Morning Weigh-In

And yet another Monday has rolled around.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect this morning when I got on the scale.

On one hand, I was sure that my weight was up but there is always that slim-to-none chance that encourages you to hope that for once…..just for once that things go your way….

I only managed to make it out to my exercise class twice last week, so that was already working against me and then…….I went to a Ladies Retreat this weekend and at this particular camp they have the MOST AMAZING FOOD.

Now, I was good. I called ahead and talked to the head cook and asked for a dairy free, wheat free, red meat free diet. It wouldn’t have killed me to eat all the garbage delicious food that they would have been offering, but I knew that physically – I would be a lot more comfortable sticking to what I’ve been doing, and really who needs extra gas when you are sharing a small room with 4 other women.

Even so, this camp is SO accommodating and the specialty meals that they prepared were DELICIOUS. I did not lose out in any way. They even offered a special dessert with lunch and dinner.

So, like I said, I had no clue what to expect this morning, but……I stepped on the scale and it read 190.6 pounds.

YAAAAHHHH!!!!!!

I am down another 1.2 pounds. If you had seen the food this weekend, you’d be amazed that I still lost. It was that good!

Today is a bit of a rest day for me. It’s been about a month that I’ve been sick and while I’m starting to feel better, I think that this weekend pushed me a little more than I was really ready for. I’ll be taking it easy today and spending some time on my couch. I do want to actually prepare a meal plan for this week and I will be going into work tomorrow AND there is an evening meeting tomorrow night as well….UGH! I’m thankful that Wednesday is a holiday.

Well, my littlest man is rummaging through the fridge ad so I gotta go before he opens up all the salad dressing and rubs the “creamies” into his legs……