Making cookies

While The Little Lady slept, The Little Man and I made cookies.
I wrote out the recipe so that he could read it to me and together we made some very yummy cookies.
I think that the added help from the five year old was the secret ingredient.

Cooking and eating

I have a love/hate relationship with cooking.
I know that it is something that I want to do as a wife and mother but it can be draining. Maybe I made it that way by putting eating healthy way up on my list of things that I find important in life.
Its hard if not imposable to eat healthy without cooking. I mean I guess I could stock my freezer full of Kashai and Amy's frozen meals but I dont have the money nor desire to do that. Then there is all the waste from the packaging but I am not going into that right now.
So until unless our family decides to go on a raw food/ vegan diet, I am going to have to cook.
Sometimes I get adventurous and try new recipes but most of the time I will stick to the basics.
Cooking with the littles under toe is both fun and challenging.
The little man can be a big help.

The little lady on the other had is not as helpful yet. She tries but most of the time she ends up helping by getting on my back in the Ergo.

She is still in the action but not right in it.
There has been a few times when I have been cooking dinner and she will some in dragging the Ergo behind her wanting to get up, snuggle and help.
But the best part of cooking is getting to eat.

Guack-a-rolly

We all got dressed this morning in our green shirts.

 The little man has two St. Patties day shirts but he did not want to wear either because neither were green. So he chose to wear his big brother shirt that I made for him over a year ago to wear when the little lady was born.
The little lady sported a shirt that the little may wore when he was younger. It says its not easy being green. I have always loved this shirt and I am so happy to be able to see it on the little lady. It reminds me of the 'little' little man.
Tomorrow we are going to celebrate with corned beef and cabbage but I still felt the need to make a green snack, guacamole or in the little mans words 'guack-a-rolly.'
*Last years green treat. I had fun looking back and just had to share =} WOW how the kids have grown!!

My Guack-a-rolly recipe
2 ripe avocados, diced
1 (about 1/4 cup) dollop of plain yogurt (or sour cream)
1 diced tomato
seasonings to taste (chili powder, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper)
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

I served it along with semi- homemade corn tortilla chips.

Semi- homemade corn tortilla chip recipe
Package of corn tortillas
Olive oil
Sea salt
Preheat oven to 350*
Rub olive oil on both sides of the tortillas. Place in a baking stone and cut into 8 triangles. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 10- 15 minutes until crispy and the edges start to curve.
Cool, dip and enjoy.

Love love love

So since my last post on Friday the little man and I have started tossing throwing up also. Now four days later we are all feeling much better.
And since I am already 4 days behind on the 12 days of Christmas I am just going to have to call it quits for this year.
I ended up taking the littles to the doctor yesterday to get checked out. The little man woke up with red, watery eyes and a cough. The little lady had a rash covering her chest and still had diarrhea. The results... we have Adenovirus. Its just as contagious as the common cold but each child can have different symptoms.

The little man has been much better today. He is still really mellow but his eyes are not nearly as red anymore.
My love for Hylands is growing. I found some tablets for Sniffles'n Sneezes. The are homeopathic (like all of Hylands products) and they did an amazing job at helping his cough and red eyes. I think that he still likes the Hylands cough syrup better but the tablets seam to work better.

The little lady still has a rash and diarrhea. My love for Elimination Communication is growing also ( I did not know it could grow more but it has) since she has been sick. I have still had to change a good share of poopy diapers but she has made it to the potty many more times. I dont think I would want to see how red her bum bum would be if she never made it to the potty.

My one more growing love is for soaked oatmeal.
If you haven't ever tried it, you need to.
All I do is soak some oats in some water over night in the fridge. When we up and ready for breakfast I just bring the oats to a boil and then I let it simmer for a minutes. Eat and enjoy.
This was the first food that we could keep down and it was amazing. I have some soaking in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow.
Maybe my shirt that I wore yesterday and today had a little something to do with the love, love, love post.

I am still living my life and loving it... no matter how unglamorous it maybe.

1st and 2nd days of Christmas

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love sent to me one romantic date night.
This weekend the hubby and I went out for dinner to celebrate six years of marriage. We had a gift card to a restaurant that we had never been before so we figured we should check it out.

We dropped the littles off at the in laws and off we went, just the two of us.

The atmosphere was nice but the food was just ok. We were very thankful that we had the gift card. I dont think that we will ever go there again but it was fun to try something new.

Afterwords we walked around downtown for a little while in the rain. We checked out a used bookstore but found nothing. Our night was cut short but that was fine. It was fun to get out just the two of us but I was glad to see these two when we got back.

On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love sent to me two jars of orange purees... and one romantic date night.

Tonight's dinner was not as fancy but much more tasty. I made Spaghetti pie with two different orange purees in it.

I started off with leftover spaghetti noodles and sauce but it could be easily made with fresh made pasta and sauce.

One cup shredded mozzarella cheese

One egg

One jar of squash baby food or half cup pureed squash

One jar of carrot baby food or half cup pureed carrots

Preheat over to 350
Put everything in a large bowl (leaving out half the cheese) and mix well. Spray pie pan (I had too much leftover spaghetti to fit in a pie pan so I used a 8X8 glass baking dish). Put mixture into the baking dish and top with leftover cheese bake for 30-40 minutes (I cooked mine for almost an hour because I like it extra crispy).

The hubby even had two helpings, the little lady like it... but the little man still did not want to eat. He will eat when he is hungry, right?

 Proof that he does eat. Eating the heart shaped snognog (eggnog) french toast the other night.

Snowed in cooking

With all this fluffy white stuff on the ground just makes me want to spend all my time in the kitchen and not being able to run out to the store has made me be a little more creative in my cooking.
I dont measure when I cook so I am not the best person to write a recipe but here goes.

What you will need-
About 5 cups of soaked dried beans- I used  1 cup red beans, 1 cup black beans, 1 cup kidney beans and 2 cups of pinto beans. I did not remember to soak them over night so I quick soaked them in the morning. Canned beans would work also just omit the bean cooking step.
2 cans of tomato paste- any tomato product would work.
1 package of ground turkey- any ground meat would work or just omit the meat.
Lots of seasoning- Taco, chili powder, garlic, onion powder or even a little hot wing sauce all work great.
The ingredients that you dont tell the kids or the hubby that you put in the chili!
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper- I used frozen.
1/2 cup diced onion- I used frozen.
1 cup pureed carrots- I used two jars of carrot baby food. I started with one and then thought it needed more. Shredded carrots would work also just add them while the beans are cooking.

Start by cooking the beans in a large pot with about 12 cups of water over medium low heat until almost tender (about two hours). Once the beans are cooked add the two cans of tomato paste, the seasonings of your choice and the cup of carrot puree (or baby food). I also added a little more water but not too much because the hubby likes a thick chili (about 4 cups). I cooked them on medium low for a few hours until it the beans were nice and soft.
In a large skillet brown the meat along with the onion, green pepper and celery. Season with pepper if you like. Once everything is brown and tender add to the chili pot.
Let everything cook together for 20 minutes or so.
Serve with cornbread and a green salad.

I made this for Monday's dinner and Tuesday I served it over homemade macaroni and cheese and green beans. I dont think that I will use it in tonight's dinner but you never know. You can always put the extra chili in pint size canning jars and place in the freezer until the next time you are craving some Snowed in Chili.

Playing in the kitchen

Most days I feel like I spend all day in my kitchen. Most of the time it is a good thing. I am not the greatest cook but I do enjoy making my family mostly healthy meals that we get to enjoy together. It it is even more fun now that the little man wants to help me. He climbs up into his learning tower and helps me cut celery or kneed dough or do whatever I need help with.

I have a sign in my kitchen that reads 'A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen.' That is very true about my kitchen. Most of the time my sink is full of dishes, the floor is littered with crumbs and you can hardly see my counters. Dont get me wrong having a clean kitchen makes me happy also but when my kitchen is messy I know that I just got done creating something that I hope my family will love.
We dont always just cook food in the kitchen. Some times we make play dough or paint or just splash in the kitchen sink.

The little lady even had her first taste of play dough this week in the kitchen.

We even have toys in the kitchen. The littles favorite is the leapfrog letter magnets. We have two of the toys that make the letter sounds and one that you use to create three letter words.
*Just a side note* WOW after seeing the prices of these items new I am really glad I did not buy them new. They are great toys dont get me wrong but 65 bucks just for the lower case letters is a little crazy. I got the two readers and the upper and lower case letters at a garage sale for 4 bucks and the word speller with a few letters at the thrift store for $2. If you are interested in these letters check used like Craigslist before buying new.
The little man is enjoying learning how to create different words. He thinks that it is really neat that we can spell mom, dad and cop. We even spelled arm and pit the other day and he thought that was real funny. The little lady just likes to chew on the letters and take them off the fridge.
And no matter how messy or dirty my kitchen floor is it always looks amazing in black and white pictures. Dont ya think?

Dinner time

Since the hubby is back to work and a routine is starting in our lives again, dinner time is making a come back. It never really stopped around here but now it has really become a great time for us to all get together and talk about our days.
I tried out a new recipe. It was a flop.
The hubby was not a fan of the minestrone soup that I cooked half the day in the crock pot.

I have really been thinking lately that we need to eat a few meatless meals but I just knew that the hubby would not like that idea. So I kept pushing it away but it just kept popping back into my little mind. So I finally gave in.
The first thing out of the hubby's mouth as we sat down and he looked into his bowl was 'Where is the meat?'
The meat! Who needs meat when there is oodles of noodles, fresh picked zucchini, and a bounty of beans swimming all together in the same pot?
Well... we do.
It was a little blah. Maybe some meat would of added some more flavor to the dish.
I really should of done a little more recipe research. Using the first recipe that I saw that I got from a free bean book was not the best idea.

At least the bread was a hit. I have made the Betty Crocker county bread a few times now and I really like the way that it turns out. It takes a little more time than the no kneed bread that was my staple but it is worth it. I have a new favorite.
If you know of any great meatless meals send them my way and maybe, just maybe, I will get brave enough to try one out again. Until then you will find meat on our table and two cute kids ready to dig in.

I tried to be a little creative with this one. Do you see the little lady in the spoon?

Seeing double

I spent most of the day in the kitchen today.
I started it off with a double batch of banana bread. So the little lady took her morning nap in ergo while I made the bread. I was just pulling it out of the oven as the little man woke up. So we all sat down and enjoyed the warm delicious goodness.
Once the banana bread was done I had a double batch of zucchini bread to go in.
As it cooked I was able to clean up the playroom and give the kids a bath.
Later on in the afternoon I made another double batch but this time of strawberry freezer jam.
Before I knew it it was time for me to start dinner. So as the little lady slept, yet again in the ergo, I made calzones stuffed full with whatever leftover that I had in the fridge.
After dinner I packed the little mans bag and dropped him off for his first sleepover at a friends house. Tear.

What I have learned this week from baking/ cooking

I have been trying to cook healthier and make more food from scratch. Not only is it cheaper but it is also healthier. Here are just a few things that I have learned this week while baking and cooking.

1. That the little man does not like blueberry muffins. He woke up on Wednesday morning and I asked him if he wanted blueberry muffins for breakfast. He was all excited. So he helped me make them. When it came time to add the blueberries he wanted to help so we added a few extra. When they came out of the oven and were cooled off a little I handed him one. He looked at me and said 'I dont like blueberries mom.' What! Then why did we make blueberry muffins. There is now way that I can eat a dozen and a half muffins all by myself. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it. I tried to get him to eat around them but since we added extra (like he wanted) it was a little hard.

2. Just because I think I know the recipe, look anyway. I have a recipe for no knead bread dough that I use all the time (at least once a week). I use this dough for everything. I know the recipe by heart, or well I thought I did. Water is the first ingredient and for a single batch you use 3 cups but for a double batch you use well.. double. I forgot that part and started mixing it and realized that the dough that is normally really wet was really dry. I added the water and mixed some more causing my no knead beard dough to be a little kneaded. The finished product still turned out fine maybe next time I will look at the recipe.


3. Sugar makes dried beans hard. I had soaked some bean over night yesterday so that I could make chili for dinner. Plans changed and I decided to make baked beans instead. So I just took the beans that were in the pot, rinsed them, added a can a beef broth, a can of tomato sauce and some brown sugar. I let them cook on med-low heat for a while and I tasted them. Still crunchy, so I let them cook longer. After three hours of cooking they were still crunchy. After talking with my mom and dad they said that they have had sugar make food hard before. I had never heard such a thing.

4. Agave can not be substituted for sugar in peanut butter trail mix bars. I had never made these bars before but adding agave was the only change I made to the recipe and the bars did not turn out very bar like. Here I was trying to make them healthier by not putting sugar in them and it was a flop. It had a great taste but it was more like peanut butter granola than a bar. I think that I will try this recipe next week (with no changes) and see if it turns out any better.


And now I have some bananas calling my name. So I think that banana bread might be for breakfast tomorrow (the little man likes banana bread, I think). Hopefully it turns out great.

A windy washy day

My day started about 7am when I got up to nurse the little lady, check my email and make some coffee. The wind was howling outside and all of the clocks in the house were blinking 12:00.
Just as I was grinding the beans to make the coffee I heard the pitter patter of little feet coming down the hall way. It was the little man with a grin from ear to ear dragging his little blankie behind him.
The first thing that I heard out of his mouth was not good morning but 'My pants are wet.'
So with those words I knew that I was going to have to do laundry today. So we went in his bedroom, changed his clothes and for the first time ever the little man was dressed for the day before even eating breakfast.
And for breakfast we had cold cereal because there was not much of anything else to eat in the house. Thinking ahead to lunch I quickly made up some bread dough so that it would be ready to bake before lunch.


As we were eating breakfast the hubby left to go do some work at a friends house. So we were left home with no car since I sold mine this weekend. So I knew that today was going to be a productive day around the house since I could not escape it and go anywhere.
After putting a load of laundry in the wash I than wondered into our bathroom to try and put myself together a little. I was greeted by a very messy counter and a filthy toilet.


After a little cleaning up it looked much better.


The clothes were now ready for the dryer and the bread was ready to go in the oven. Not long after doing these two things the power went out again. Shortly after it was back on and than back out again. My bread was never going to cook at this rate and my clothes were going to take all day to dry.
The bread did cook and tasted amazing with a little homemade freezer jam and peanut butter.


The clothes did get dry and are now calling my name to fold them and put them away. So that is what I will be doing the rest of the afternoon.

Making a green treat

Today the little man and I decided that we needed to make a green treat to share with our friends tonight after our dinner of corned beef.


So we decided to make green rice crispy treats.


The little man was such a big helper.


But I think that his favorite part was licking the spoon.


The little lady helped also by sleeping so soundly and looking so cute.

**Notice my clean counters. A big thank you to my hubby for putting in my drawers in the kitchen and main bathroom. It only took 5 years but they are finally in and that is all that matters.

PB and J party

After reading this post yesterday morning I was inspired. (I think that I need to stop reading blogs in the morning unless I want to be inspired) On this post was this recipes that I just had to try.

The little man helped me and when they came out of the oven he thought that they looked like cupcakes so he wanted to sing me happy birthday.

So we snag, blew out some pretend candles and enjoyed our muffins.

Macaroni and music

So this new year I have been trying out some new recipes and trying to use the great invention called the 'crock pot' a little more. I have a wonderful crock pot book that I like to look thought every now and again. The only thing that I really dont like about it is that there are no pictures and no ratings but ever recipe still makes my mouth water. So after looking through many cook books I always end up back at the same place allrecipies.com.

So I came across this recipe for macaroni and cheese in the crock pot and I just had to try it out. So that is what we had for dinner tonight.



It did not turn out half bad. I did change up the recipe a little by not cooking the noodles before hand. It was not as creamy as I would of liked but it still had a great flavor and both of the men liked it. I think that I will try making it again but next time I might add a little more milk and cheese to maybe make it a little more creamy.

After dinner the hubby and a few friends got together for a little jam session at the church. The little man and I stopped by for a little while but by the time they started playing it was already after 9pm. So we stayed for a few songs. The little man was really excited to see his daddy playing the drums.



The little man jamming out before we headed home. Now he is all tucked into his sleeping bag sound asleep in his bed. Getting ready for our busy day tomorrow.

What a weekend

Friday afternoon I got a phone call from my mom who told me that my brother was at her house. Not my brother that lives down the street but my brother that lives in the wilderness of Northern Washington. The one that I have not seen in years.
This was the first time the little man got to meet his Uncle Doug (I was very surprised that before the night was over he was able to call him by name). We got to sit and catch up a little and he taught the little man how to do a google search.


googleing (yes thats my brother not a Geico cave man)

It was so nice to see him we stayed there till 9:30pm. Hopefully it wont be another two years before we see him again.
Saturday the little man helped me make our first carrot cake.



He enjoyed playing in the shredded carrots and stirring it 'round' and 'round'.

Our plans were to go out to dinner with some friends to harbor lights but they both got sick so we had a change of plans. So we invited the hubby's family. It was a very enjoyable dinner. I had great fish and chips and the hubby had what he says was the best steak he ever had, we both ended up with horrible heart burn, but it was worth it.
Sunday we had an EC play date. I am a member of a diaper free baby yahoo group. It was nice to get to meet some other moms and kids who have gone down the same road we are on. Before today I had only meet two other moms and one on blogger who have or are ECing their children. Hopefully we will be able to make it to some more get togethers soon.


Out after a long weekend

I hope that everyone else had a great weekend.