A Vegetarian Experiment

This post could be really long. But, well, let’s face it, I’m tired.  I’ve seen eleven clients this week and still have six to go. One of the boys had a 103° fever today and there have been three babysitters at my house in the past two days. I often have to take a full minute just to remember what day it is. So, I’ll keep this simple.

Several years ago I read this book.

Then I watched this movie.

We ordered weekly baskets of food from these guys.

I also read this book.

We have spent fair amounts of time and money here

and here.

Recently I started reading this book.

(which I have not finished yet)

And I watched this movie.

And that leads us to this week in which we have been experimenting with vegetarianism…toying with veganism even.  And that’s it. It’s an experiment. We are quite accustomed to food restrictions thanks to our youngest son (no dairy, soy or gluten for him for almost a year now) so it really just feels like another layer of thoughtfulness when planning meals.

We are lucky enough to have a great CSA through my husband’s work…so for the past few weeks we’ve gotten something like this

every Wednesday. That’s a lot of green! (Scott Arbor, Seguin, TX.)

So here’s some of the products of experimentation:

That’s green garlic, green onions, swiss chard and pac choi which I mixed with one of these

for a super quick lunch (and left overs for another meal.)

Of course you can’t go too long without pizza…

Sautéed spinach, peppers, garlic and onions with mushrooms on a tomato and pesto base…just a sprinkle of feta and parmesan…no one missed the pepperoni or mozzarella.

Lots of the spinach has been going into smoothie packs: prepackaged ingredients to make one breakfast smoothie straight out of the freezer.

This batch had a banana, blueberries, almond butter, spinach and agave in the freezer bags. When my husband makes them he adds almond milk and some whey protein powder in the Magic Bullet for a fairly quick and nutrient-packed breakfast.  (I’m not a breakfast smoothie girl myself – in fact I’m not much of a breakfast person at all – so I’ve been forcing myself to eat granola with almond milk, you know, sometime before noon.)

Then there were kale chips:

chopped and sprinkled with garlic salt and roasted until crunchy

and absolutely no one in the house is going to eat these but me. (Though Whit did try them!) They melt in your mouth and are crispy and salty just like a chip…I was happy to munch on them while making dinner with less guilt than chips and salsa.

Part of dinner was this broccoli:

Roasted with salt and pepper and then tossed with parmesan, lemon juice and basil fresh out of the oven. My oven runs a little hot and I could have taken this out sooner – however, even a little crispy the flavor was still delish!

You must be sure to **thoroughly** wash everything that comes in that CSA share bag! This little guy (and his two buddies) found new homes in our landscaping.

The lettuce leaves without caterpillars were used for veggie stir fry wraps…there’s carrots and pac choi and broccoli stalks and bell peppers and green garlic in that rice.

And so…there you are. The Vegetarian Experiment is underway.

Stay tuned….

Memorial Birthday RAOK

Hey! It’s March!

(Did you know that? Seriously, when did that happen?)

I’m wrapping up February with this post about Random Acts Of Kindness (RAOK.)  As regular readers know, February is a complicated month in our household…both joy and sorrow mingling throughout the weeks.  This year marked the 8th since I delivered our oldest, Wheeler, a full-term stillborn son. We’ve done a variety of things over the years to memorialize his way-too-short life and the impact it has had on us. Balloon releases, birthday cakes, toy donations…the ritual has grown and evolved over the years.

This year I felt compelled to complete eight RAOK throughout the day…and if you follow me on Facebook, then you have already seen these in “real time.” What a wonderful day full of love and support – I was truly overwhelmed at the messages and emails and texts and calls. I’ve always been a fan of Facebook, but this week it went to a whole new level.

So for those of you who asked…here’s the list of the RAOK and a brief recap of the day:

From my FB feed -

RAOK#1 of 8 At the drive-thru: “I’ll have iced tea…and pay for whatever the people behind me ordered.” I love the look on their faces when I say that! 

RAOK #2 of 8 Just let two drivers (who obviously couldn’t read the construction signs) in front of me to get on the freeway (much to the dismay of impatient driver behind me.) My husband and I laughed about this later… since I really irritated the guy behind me that probably canceled out one of the good deeds…so it was a good thing it was TWO drivers so it still counted!!

RAOK #3 of 8 Tip for very nice waitress at lunch….times FIVE.  — at Tre Trattoria. My mom and I had a lovely lunch together and our waitress was very sweet – made this one a no-brainer. Credit to mom for splitting this one with me!

RAOK #4 of 8 Basket of goodies for the L&D nurses.  My mom was also in on this one…picking out and purchasing a ton of gourmet cookies and brownies and cakes to stuff into a basket…and then driving the car around and around the circular drive at the hospital while I ran them upstairs!

Our local non-profit (MISS) has a great relationship with University Hospital. We do regular training seminars there and a burial assistance program.

RAOK #5 of 8 A gift card for groceries given to a worn out mom walking in with kids trailing….  When we went to the store to get the dessert and balloons for our family celebration later, I also grabbed a store gift card and then handed to a mom as she was walking into the store. She looked like she hadn’t slept in too long and the kids with her looked like they would rather be anywhere else. It made me think about this fantastic post on motherhood – quite possibly the best commentary on the job I’ve ever read.

We took a little break here for dinner and birthday cake and a balloon release with the boys – they LOVE candles and singing and even added the “and many more, on channel four, your pants are tore…” just like little brothers should do. Then Lincoln explained that it was time to send the party to heaven, so we needed to let the balloon go. Very sweet.

RAOK #6 of 8 A bag full of quarters left in the laundromat….

Somewhere in here we were at a store and my husband discovered we had a flat tire. Did I mention it was pouring rain?? So Mr. Superhero changed that tire likkety split and cheerfully resumed our RAOK adventure albeit a little bit soggier. T.R.O.O.P.E.R.

RAOK #7 of 8 A big bag of yummy snacks and sweets delivered to our local fire fighters….

And finally,

RAOK #8 of 8 A free dinner for an unsuspecting solo diner at our local coffee shop. Happy Birthday baby boy!!

All in all it was a very enjoyable way to remember my oldest son and felt very fitting considering what an impact he’s had on our lives and the lives of those around us. I personally loved this new evolution of our ritual and hope to continue it for years to come. (Though, I’m aware by the time he would be graduating from high school it will take a lot more planning and coordinating to fit all the RAOK into one day!)

For more information about the MISS Foundation’s Kindness Project, you can go here. You will find details about the annual project and also downloadable cards for use during your own RAOK adventure.  And for a wonderful blog post with more ideas for RAOK…go here.  And that blog post spawned this website…which takes the whole idea to another level entirely.

Thanks again to all my friends and family for the support and love…and a special thanks to those of you who also did RAOK this week in honor of Wheeler. I’ll probably never be able to explain how much that means.

OK March…here we come!

Another Birthday Already

He’s six. And the next chapter in the super hero story is Green.

These are the sugar cookies made for his classroom party at school. He ventured away from our traditional “birthday cake” this year and went all-cookie. It was a fun change. I made a giant sugar cookie cake for his family party…which was a total experiment as I’d never made one like that before. Based on the rave reviews at the party, I think it worked out well. Of course, it was mostly family, so maybe they were just being nice. (But the platter was totally empty at the end of the day – which rarely happens with a regular cake!)

I wish I’d taken a picture of the inside of it when it was cut…it was really chewy and moist with a kind-of-crunchy outside. In my house that is pretty much the definition of a perfect cookie. Sometimes my experiments work out!

We added a new birthday tradition to the mix this year. I’ve seen this wreath on Pinterest over the past few weeks and I thought it would be great to have one to pull out whenever we are celebrating a birthday. We already have “Happy Birthday” banners for each of the boys that we put up in the living room, so this is just an addition to the celebration decor.

It was a very easy little project – as long as you have nearly 200 balloons on hand!

Key points to making one of these:

Leave the plastic on the wreath so it doesn’t shed straw everywhere.

Use greening pins (found in the floral sections at craft stores) for an easy way to stick the balloons and pipe cleaners onto the wreath.

The original tutorial (linked above) says she used 144 balloons. I used about 200. It didn’t quite look full enough to me at 144, so I kept going. But the back is left bare.

I also thought about adding some ribbon to it, but I didn’t. I think that could be really cute…maybe I’ll add it next time we bring it out for a birthday.

And one more little piece of birthday fun was the early morning balloon gauntlet right outside the birthday boy’s door. Yet another thing I’ve seen floating around on Pinterest that was a big hit. I think the boys played in it for an hour when they got up.  Which was really nice for me while I was busy getting birthday breakfast on the table!

I highly recommend the celebration gauntlet the next time you are party planning!

I was quite happy to have all these projects to keep me busy…it prevented me from really thinking about the fact that he is already SIX. (insert deep sigh here.)

And here’s the cookie details for those of you who might crave a giant cookie.

Sugar Cookie Dough (especially good for icing and bouquet-type cookies)

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (for the large cookie cake.  If making smaller cookies, use 5 cups.)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Chill dough in refrigerator at least an hour. Preheat oven to 400. (For small cookies, roll dough out to 1/4-1/2 inch thickness, cut and place 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes.) For the large cookie cake, press the dough into a spring form pan (mine is 9-10″ I think.) Cover with foil and bake for at least 20 minutes. (Now this is where it gets a little sketchy because I just kept checking it every few minutes and I’m not entirely sure how many more minutes it was in there. I’m going to say between 24 and 30 total.)  I was just waiting for the center to firm up…and the toothpick test was a good way to tell. The foil kept the edges and the top from getting too brown and too crispy, but you can take it off at the end for the last few minutes.)

Once it was completely cooled, I removed it to a rack and iced it with store-bought cake icing. I cut it like a pie…and, come to think of it, save one tiny taste I took while slicing, I never even got a piece! Maybe next time.

 

Apple Ring Pancakes

I spend just a little too much time on Pinterest these days.

And that’s kind of like saying the summers here get just a little too hot.

But that’s another issue entirely. This post is about something I saw on Pinterest that I actually did…instead of just re-pinning it.

At first glance they seem like cute little pancakes…but hidden inside is

an apple ring!  Genius.

The boys loved them. Well, let me clarify that. Lincoln loved them…Whitman loved the idea of them, but then was offended by the actual presence of an apple inside his pancake.  (His gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free pancakes…remember those?)

Apple rings, dipped in pancake batter…a super fun way to jazz up the Saturday morning stack of cakes.

Thanks Pinterest!

Have you made candles?

This was another holiday project…candles.  Which I had never done before and thought would be much harder than it was.

This idea is from Pinterest…and the link is here. The original tutorial makes the candles in adorable little tea cups. I couldn’t find any tea cups that I loved, but I did find a great assortment of cups and dessert dishes at a local flea market. I think they were 75¢ each.

Wicks into glasses.

Wax melted on stovetop.

Fragrance (cinnamon) and dye go into the melted wax.

Then you pour the wax into your containers…and let them cool. Really. That’s it.

I made these as gifts for our annual family “Holiday Hen Party” at my aunt’s house. We usually bring something to share…lots of baked things…but, this year I didn’t feel like cooking. It was fun to do something new and they smelled great – a big hit! Any candlemakers out there? Tips or ideas?

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays…

 

 

Just in time for the holidays…

I’m back. Yay!

I still have presents to wrap and some cooking to do, but I wanted to drop in here and share some projects I did last week for Christmas.

Historically my Christmas tree has been a “no touch” affair. One of my favorite collections is my crystal tree ornament collection. For about 15 years now I’ve been collecting Christmas tree ornaments, mostly Waterford, but there are a few Swarovski in there. With white lights and silver accents I think they make a stunning tree. NEWSFLASH TO SELF: You have a 2-year-old and there is a train under your tree…you can NOT have an entire tree full of breakable things. Can. Not.

So this year, the ornaments stayed in their gorgeous, satin-padded box…and we covered the tree in (mostly) handmade ornaments and other not-easily-breakable things. I’m quite smitten with it.

One of the projects was making some big red and green ball ornaments to go on the tree.  Because, actually, I didn’t have very many kid-friendly ornaments outside of the ones they have made at school.

Yarn wrapped around small balloons, dipped in glue…hang to dry, pop the balloon. How fun are those?

I found the instructions on Pinterest. And if you aren’t addicted to that yet, by all means, click through and prepare to waste an hour or two. My boards can be found here. And the link to these ornaments is here.

A little tip: the more you cover the balloon with yarn the easier it is for the balloon to “pop” after it has been covered with glue…it will kind of stick to the yarn of course. I tried to use water balloons because I thought they would be the best size, but I couldn’t blow them up. Seriously. So I just used regular balloons, barely filled. And a pair of tweezers will come in handy to get the balloon pieces out.

Here’s my favorite handmade ornament – my oldest made it in his preschool class last year:

I’m pretty sure it is a plain glass ball covered with glitter and tissue paper. Lovely.

My youngest’s ornament from last year…hand-print snowmen. Those teachers are so clever.

Of course, we must have the requisite photo ornaments:

And there is always a selection of memorial ornaments:

Periodically we add a memorial ornament for our first son and last year our oldest wanted matching ones. He placed them on the tree this year insisting they be grouped "because we are brothers."

And our precious pups...one gone last year and one this. This is the first year in more than I can remember there won't be any rawhide under the tree!

As much as I adore my fancy-schmancy ornaments, I really loved having a tree totally decorated by my boys…and not caring that 90% of the ornaments were bunched on the bottom third of the tree!

If we make more of these yarn ornaments next year, I’m going to add silver yarn into the mix. And who knows, maybe we’ll string popcorn and cranberries, too. It might be awhile before my crystal sees a tree again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hiatus

Just logging in to let you know that I have some technology challenges these days.

A week or so ago, my laptop officially gave up. (I was able to revive it momentarily by hooking it up to the TV as a monitor.)

And then our house was burglarized.  As in someone-busted-in-our-front-door-and-stole-all-our-stuff kind of burglary.

So now, I’m without the computer and the TV that made it functional. They also took my brand new camera. All of which is replaceable, of course. And we’re grateful to have not been home when it happened…for that I feel fortunate.  I imagine I’ll have a replacement computer and camera at some point in the future – and then I’ll be back!

In the meantime, I’ll still be cooking and thinking about the pictures I wish I was taking.

I’ll be filling out insurance forms and trying to understand why we pay them money every month.

And I’ll also be mourning the loss of the stuff that is NOT replaceable…like my grandmother’s jewelry and the suite of pearls my husband created over the course of three pregnancies/deliveries. Among other things, of course.

And hoping that karma is real.

Hoping not to be gone for long….

PS – if you are local and feel like checking out the pawn shops, let me know…I’ll fill you in on what to keep an eye open for!