Mary Beth wanted Emma to help make her party cupcakes and as you can see they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They turned out delicious- they are very good little bakers!
sorry for the blurry shots- they were devouring the leftover batter so fast I couldn't get a clear one!
filling party favors
i got some flowers to spruce up the backyard- it was a "garden party" after all!
Mickey made himself a "fancy lunch" today.... linens, frill pick, gourmet peanut butter and fresh blueberry sandwich, a goblet of milk, and a garnish of spinach and mandarin oranges.
a typical Costco run- I love it there!
10 lbs of carrots!!! don't worry, we'll eat them all!
I decided since we never use the dining room, I would turn it into our homeschool room instead. Not that we would sit in there to do all our work but it would be a place to store all of our stuff and if they wanted to do their work in there they could.
I made this for supper tonight- it was YUMMY! I just used a big can of diced tomatoes, cut up a bunch of kalmata olives, red pepper flakes, basil, onions, oregano, garlic, and put it on some ziti.
Saw this today... ha! That's me.
just kidding.
no I'm not.
Emma came over for a play date and her and MB spent most of the time looking through their old Kindergarten and 1st grade projects and papers. :)
Then in the evening Jenny came over to watch the kids so John and I could go see Temple Grandin speak at the CEC convention that was in town.
The line was long afterwards to meet her and get her autograph(& they had sold out of the book I wanted anyway) so I just snuck up really close to her and took her picture. I don't think she noticed but I'm sure I looked like a weird-o to everyone else!
She was SOOO good- I'm glad I went. Lots of great information.
If you haven't watched the movie Temple Grandin based on her life- you HAVE to!
I believe it's on Netflix.
John and I watched this last night and afterwards, much to my astonishment, John said he was going to stop eating meat and dairy and give it a try!! I couldn't believe it! 2 years ago I read an amazing book called The China Study and because it read like a textbook and was saying things like don't eat meat and dairy, John had no desire to read it. I stopped cooking meat for a week straight after I finished it and he was barely speaking to me. Ha! I cut way down on the meat served in our house after that grumpy week but as the months went by, it slowly began sneaking back into our diet more. We also became more lax about eating out, a few processed foods, too many sweets, ect. Don't get me wrong- we still ate tons of veggies and fruit and we have been drinking almond milk for 2 years but John and I still felt run down all the time and we were slowly gaining weight- we just didn't feel great! Fast forward to yesterday when I stumbled upon this movie...
Well, this documentary is based on that book and I was so excited to be able to present it once again to John- this time in a manner that didn't require hours of reading a book he had already decided he didn't like. So now we have been on a whole food-plant based diet and so far so good! I have lost 3 pounds this week and I'm feeling better already! A commercial came on for hamburgers the other night and I said to John: you want one of those right now, don't you? And he said no, he actually isn't even craving meat at all! I was shocked! (especially because I have been craving it- at least a little bit!)
It is on Netflix-watch instantly for those of you that have that. You can also find it online on different sites. And probably the video store?? Please watch it- it will really make you think.
Today the kids were off school so we had a fun day!
That meant for lunch we made octopus hot dogs. I know it's hard to believe this but we have never done it before!
The kids thought it was the greatest thing EVER. If you don't know how to do this and want to... you just cut the bottom half of a raw hot dog into strips and then place it in boiling water to cook it. The "legs" will get all curly and stick out just like an octopus!
Tonight I decided to use up some more of the billion beautiful tomatoes I have(thanks to my very generous neighbor/friend!) and try my hand at homemade pizza sauce.
It included a lot of chopping so some wine was in order. :)
I just kinda made it up as I went and simmered it down so it was less watery. It turned out DELICIOUS! I started with olive oil and fresh minced garlic, then added chopped tomatoes(a lot), fresh oregano and basil(lots of basil), 1 tsp of red paper flakes, and some kosher salt. If you try this use more tomatoes and basil then you think you should because it boils way down. I thought I made a lot but there was only enough to make one pizza. Luckily I was making one pepperoni pizza and one eggplant & tomato pizza so I only needed that much.
I used the dough recipe from The Pioneer Woman also(found on the link above) but I always substitute whole wheat flour for about 1/3 of the flour amount called for. I also added chopped kalamata olives and red pepper flakes to this pizza- and we really liked it like that. Looking for a way to use up some eggplant? I highly recommend making this- it is YUMMY!
And the perfect ending to our weekly Friday pizza and movie night?
eating at Cossetta's- our favorite Italian restaurant in St. Paul... we made sure to stop there in early June when we were visiting and sent this picture to my sister Amy to make her jealous(she loves it there too) I just thought it was a cute picture of the kids so I thought I'd share.
I spent all day today in my kitchen baking and cooking... organic whole wheat zucchini breads, muffins, and organic beef stew and homeade garlic and cheddar biscuits- yum!
Check out this article on school lunches in France(my friend mentioned she had read an article about it so I googled it). I just find it so interesting because lately I've been helping the kindergarteners during their lunch time and have witnessed how short a time our children have to devour their food. And guess which foods on their tray they choose to eat first? You got it: NOT the fruits and veggies. So then guess which foods get dumped into the trash can when they are told tough luck, lunch time is now over? Right, the fruits and veggies. Same goes for the 2-3 kids per class that bring lunch from home. That's why I ONLY pack a fruit or veggie and a sandwich. That's all they have time for anyway and there's no unhealthy choice to eat first. Is 10-15 minutes suddenly enough time to eat a great, healthy lunch without shoveling it down your throat as fast as you can? NO! What can be done to change this I wonder...
Everyone must go make this for dinner as soon as possible. Not kidding. It was REALLY good and my family gobbled it up. I was worried they wouldn't like the artichokes but I chopped them up into smallish pieces so it wasn't even an issue. Things I did differently: used the whole container of feta, used bow-tie pasta instead of penne, used a whole stick of butter instead of 3 T., sprinkled hot pepper flakes on my serving(spicey nicey!), and we all sprinkled pecarino romano cheese on our servings. Best parts: fast and easy & no meat!
I refuse to buy the regular eggs from the grocery store after seeing and reading about where they come from. But there are also "cage-free", "natural", "free-range", ect.- it's pretty confusing! There has been some debate lately as to what all those different labels mean and if it's worth it to buy organic eggs. I just found this article that really helped clear things up and I thought maybe some of you might be interested in reading it too.
made the yummiest, moistest, 100% whole wheat bread in my $10 yard sale bread machine
it was my first time trying the machine out and I used a recipe I found online and tweaked it a bit. I was really nervous it wouldn't turn out because: 1. i'd never used a breadmaker before
2. i'd never made whole wheat bread before and heard it can turn out really dense
3. i changed some stuff in the recipe
(used almond milk instead of milk powder and honey instead of sugar) &
4. i didn't have a thermometer to check how warm the almond milk was
but, despite all of this it turned out AMAZING! i am going to have to make a loaf everyday now to keep up with how fast we go through it but it's so quick and easy that it will be no problem!
now i won't have to buy bread anymore and we will have healthier, tastier bread to eat!
let me know if anyone wants the recipe and i'll post it.
Now I'm getting ready to make Pioneer Woman's Baked Lemon Pasta and a side salad with lettuce from my garden- I'll let you know how it turns out.
