Roulette and Collard Greens, Y'all

this picture has nothing to do with the post, but it just makes me laugh. My children are funny.

Ok, this is the last food post for a while, I promise. So much else is going on, but most of it is stuff I don't want to think about (selling the house, moving, finding a church, putting sam in real school) so eventually I'll process it all and write. For now, I just wanted to show you my southern meal. The most southernest meal I've ever made. And I thought it was yummy.

Oven fried fish, black eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread.

Now, when we move back to Kansas, my kids can say they've had greens. Sam liked the black eyed peas the best. Why? Because he said they tasted like boiled peanuts! That's my Georgia boy!

For appetizers, I made these bacon wrapped stuffed jalapeno peppers. And Jess and I played a game of roulette. See, some of the peppers were nice and mild, but others, OH MY! They were painfully hot. The mild ones were sooooooo yummy that they were worth the risk. So we would sit there salivating for another, knowing that we could get the one. The one that causes our mouth to burn and our nose to run. The peppers were halved, so when we had that devilish one, we knew it's pair was on that plate somewhere. Oh, the dilemma!!!!

Menu Planning

I shouldn't call this Menu Planning Mondays anymore. I thought while I have this quiet house I could get my menu and grocery list together. See, Jess had PRK (eye surgery--like Lasix) today and he's been asleep since 7. The children were cranky and tired--they were up at 6:20 to take Jess to the hospital for the surgery. So they were asleep by 8. So, at only 10pm, I have had 2 hours to myself. Bliss.

(By the way, Jess's eyes are doing great and he's excited about not wearing glasses or contacts anymore.)

Here's what we're having this week:

Wednesday: Chicken and noodles. I just called Jess's mom who talked me through how to make them. I LOVE them at her house, so we'll see how it goes.

Thursday: Mexican Lasagna (I've been thinking about this yummy dish since I saw the pictures when looking for a rice recipe last week. Go to the site. I promise you'll be making them too.)

Friday: Oven-fried fish, black-eyed peas (for some reason I have 2 bags in my pantry?) and something green.

Saturday: BBQ Chicken pizza--from last week's BBQ chicken sandwiches chicken.

Sunday: Tomato Soup and Grilled Pizza Sandwiches (from Southern Living's Easy Weeknight Suppers)

Monday: Meatloaf, mashed potatos, green beans.

Lunches: Soup, leftovers, baked potatoes.
Breakfast: Yogurt, granola, Blueberry muffins, Zucchini/banana bread

Gotta go, my husband just appeared out of the bedroom like a bear coming out of hibernation. Better go direct him to the Valium.

Adeline is Nine Months Old!

Happy Birthday, Adeline! This month you celebrated your first Christmas. . . in Oklahoma. . . a round trip of 2,345 miles. . . by car. Whew. You're a champ! You met your Papaw and a host of aunts, uncles, cousins, and a funny old fat guy. Not too sure about him.

You started babbling more. Maybe your timing could have been a bit better--your loudest babbling started at Papaw's burial! Well, i think we all felt those sweet sound are nice to hear anytime.

You learned to pull up. You switched from a few "learning bites" to eating 3 meals a day. You are trying to learn how to drink from a cup, but mostly just play with it. I think you might be getting your top two teeth, cause you have been a little extra clingy and fussy the last several days. That means I get to rock you lots. (I like that)

These are pictures of you watching the kids play outside. You LOVE watching and talking to your sister and brothers (and they love it too!) You crawl everywhere! Yesterday, while my friend stopped by to chat for a minute in the kitchen, you crawled right out the front door! "Where's my baby?" is something i've had to say a few times now. You are starting to get popped on the bottom for rolling over on your changing table. You try it. every. time.

I think you're starting to figure out how to wave bye. You start to look at your hand and wiggle your fingers when we wave to you. You are, of course, adorable as ever and everyone comments on those big blue eyes.

Happy Birthday Adeline! We love you!

Menu Planning

Tonight: Beef Brocoli lo-mein. Very very yummy. WAY better than Super Buffet.

Friday: Pizza. I made a big pot of my favorite marinara last week and froze batches of it. So it will come together pretty quickly.

Saturday: This will be the day for greens, but smothered in cheese of course! Pork tenderloin, baked potatoes, and kale gratin.

Sunday: BBQ Chicken sandwiches (put chicken breasts and bbq sauce in a crockpot and cook during church, then shred and eat on buns), crunchy cole slaw and corn.

Monday: Italian Sausage and Tortillini Soup, bread, and salad.

Happy Eating!

Food. Lots of talk about food.

So, in order to get back into blogging, and after reading Suzanne's yummy story about beets, today I'm going to talk about food. One of my themes lately has been "real food." I have been trying my hardest to stay away from prepackaged, convenient items with long lists of ingredients. I'll tell you it's all about my kids' health. But if you know me, you probably know I am also a bit of a control freak. I LOVE the idea of being able to control exactly what goes in my menu. As I mentioned before, I have given up this in favor of some cream and splenda. But I haven't mentioned that I have almost completely given up this. I know. Wow.

While not too picky about organic verses non-organic food (except for those pesky hormones in some dairy and poultry) my main goal for produce is to buy as local and seasonally as I can find. Now, I don't know that we can give up bananas. But I can hold off for a while on tomatoes--you can't tell me that a tomato in January tastes real. One place I am going for real food is a local organic farm. I got my first box of fruits and vegetables Friday and ooooh it was exciting!!! The children ate every carrot straight from the box before supper. I just have to figure out some good recipes for Kale and Swiss Chard, good winter greens.

Tonight I had my sweet friend and her children over for dinner. (side note: Her name is Sarah. Her husband is Jesse. They are in the army and live in our town. They have a daughter in preschool at Ella's school and a younger one named Adeline. Crazy, huh! We have a the same taste in fabrics and have jumped into sewing, cloth diapering and better eating together. What a blessing!) Anyway, today at the commissary I tried not to buy anything that i could make at home. That included flavored rice packets, soups, yogurt, refried beans, even cereal. And you know what? It paid off! I was happy with my grocery bill and really enjoyed my time cooking at home. I'm thankful that my job as a stay at home mom allows me the time and flexibility I need to fix these menus. I know it's not for everybody. But I'm a big fan of "Do what you can, and don't worry about the rest." And I'm also a big fan of "If I don't want to cook supper and I want Jess to take us out I just say 'We can have salad or eggs tonight.'"

Wanna know what was on the menu tonight?

Chicken and bean tacos--I roasted a chicken yesterday, and mixed half of the meat with some spices. The rest of the chicken will be good for the next few lunches.

The bean recipe was from here. The rice, I adapted from this yummy post from Pioneer Woman (soon I'm going to make the whole Mexican lasagna described--it looks soooo yummy). The kids didn't like it--i think it looked too tomato-y. But I loved it. Add some lettuce, salsa, cheese, and, oh yes! My favorite part! I strained some homemade yogurt in a coffee filter and had some delicious "sour cream"! (I really would have bought sour cream, but I just forgot it--I'm not that picky)

Wait. That wasn't my favorite part. This was my favorite part. But I can't take credit. Sarah brought this (she found the recipe here). And do you know what she did? She brought the cake early and left me alone with it while she ran errands. What was she thinking?!

I promise I just took the wrapping off so I could get a better picture. But it smelled soooo good. So I just had to have a tiny taste.

Stay tuned--hopefully tomorrow I'll post Menu Planning M-Thursdays. Although I might forget, as my mind will be excitedly thinking about the return of the worst show ever (reverse psychology-works every time.) In the meantime, I'd love to hear about what you're cooking!

And since you've made it through this totally kid-less post without complaining, I'll give you a little Addie Lou pic. Guess who's turning 9 months tomorrow?!?!

Happy Birthday, Little Brother!

We LOVE YOU very very much and wish we could celebrate with you!!!!!

Hello, blog, I've missed you. . . .er...not so much.

I have to admit I've enjoyed a slower pace AND a computer diet lately. But I started reading blogs again, and it spurred me on to get back into writing. Hmmmm. How to catch you up. Backwards or forwards? Let's go backwards, so I can start with the reason that even my fingers hurt while typing this, then every word that follows will be that much more impressive.

I'm working out. Ok, just two days so far, but man oh man! Jess decided to do this thing called P90X which he can totally rock. It's hardcore, and not for mommies who previously stayed somewhat in shape by carting babies on the hip and walking. occasionally. rarely. sort of. So I modify every bit of these videos and make up my own, but hey! It gets me moving, right? Jess is going out of his way to help me. Yesterday he came home with push up bars and 20lb weights. for me. i laughed. Still, he told me I have to learn not to talk to him while we are exercising. That might just be the hardest part.
Rewind.

We came home Saturday night to a clean house. Not even "man clean." but really real clean. Bathtubs clean. Towels and sheets washed. beds made. My husband knows how to make me happy. He is also getting ready to sell our house. Arg. Yes, we will move, Lord willing, in July to Ft.Leavenworth (KC, Kansas) but we do have a house to sell or rent. I don't even want to think about it or write about it right now. . .

We spent a few days in Nashville and had our family Christmas there when my mom returned from Oklahoma. We missed Jess and Esther, who had to head home the day after Christmas. Here are some pictures from Christmas #4.

Before that. . . . Dad and I drove home from Ok. The kids and the dad did well for all 12 hrs.

To steal a quote from Dad, it was a long, but grace and peace filled few weeks. I am so thankful to get a hug and pictures with Papaw, and thankful I was able to be there for the funeral--if I hadn't been in Ok at the time, I don't know if I would have been able to get there. Thanks for your prayers and words of encouragement! Here are some more Oklahoma pictures before I head out to restock the pantry:

Christmas morning

it took Jesse 3 hours to put together the 3 big kids' big present from Grandma and Grandpa. I think we were up til about 1am. . . but it's so cute!

FAMILY