it's still February for a few more hours. . .

. . . so I will go ahead and post a Happy Valentine's Day!

Lots of love from Sam, Si, Ella Rose and Adeline!

And now I will tell you about our Valentines Day celebration, which came a day late. We usually have a breakfast meal on Sunday nights. To make Valentines's Day special, I planned to make Cinnamon Rolls from scratch for the very first time. Of course I went here for the recipe and everyone was excited. I started the dough after church and let it rise. Then, about five o'clock, at the very moment Jess was on the phone with his mom praising my cinnamon roll ambition, I looked at the recipe again and realized I had left out half the ingredients. Just completely spaced out and forgot them. Ugh. Eggs and bacon wouldn't cut it for Valentine's Day. So, before Jess was off the phone our Papa John's pizza was on its way.

I actually added the missing ingredients to the dough that night and stuck it in the fridge, determined to make it work the next day. And guess what? It did! And they were delicious. Here are some pictures of our special post-holiday meal:

He looks like he's mad at that cinnamon roll, but I can assure you he loves it very very much.

I didn't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture of our meal of cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, blueberries and peaches, sparkling cider, and cinnamon rolls. It says a lot about the yumminess of the other food when BACON is the only thing left.

Addie won't sit in her highchair anymore.

They were sad a minute ago, but I just told them I have another pan of cinnamon rolls in the kitchen.

Got a picture of these before they disappeared too!

cheers!

Now, a word from our sponsors.

I am sitting down to write about Disney, i promise, but I just have to recommend a recipe really quick because I'm laughing at how fast my children scarfed it up. My children who will try to pick out every sliver of basil from the pizza sauce, or whine about generic, non-controversial food like sweet potatoes, chicken casserole, and pasta salad. They can't get enough of kale:

Seriously folks, I brought a bunch home from the coop today, prepared half so we could have something green with our pb&j, and it was gone before I could snap a picture. So I made the other half while they watched a movie. They're picking up the crumbs from the pan as we speak.

There are recipes all over the Internet, and I remember trying "flash fried spinach" with my brother and sister in law once. This is just as addicting, and a little healthier. So here's how I did it: Tear a bunch of kale into bite sized pieces--don't use the stems. Place in one layer on a large baking sheet.
drizzle with olive oil, salt, and, if you want, Parmesan cheese.
bake at 375 until crispy, i think it took about 15 minutes. Get a plate for yourself before the pan looks like this:

The Money Beets

First rule in road-side beet sales: Put the most attractive beets on top. Those that make you pull the car over and go, "Wow, I need this beet right now." Those are the money beets.

-Dwight Schrute

If you read Suzy's blog and wanted to go out and buy and roast beets right away be warned--hers were the money beets. This post is about how beets taste like dirt. Sorry Dwight.

The thing I love about being in an organic co-op and a farm box program is that it forces encourages us to try new fruits and vegetables. Ones we might end up loving. Kale, for one, I will try again. This week we got beets. I was optimistic. Then I was really excited when my friend Sarah (you know, the fellow sewing, cloth diapering, classical schooling, army wife married to a Jesse with a baby Adeline- that one) sent me the recipe for "Beet Cupcakes". I got so excited that I took pictures along the way, and planned on posting them "Pioneer Woman Style".

The verdict. It was exciting to make them. The pink batter was beautiful. The icing was delicious (of course! It was cream cheese frosting) and the cupcakes were OK, with the lovely aftertaste of. . . . dirt.

So, since I have no idea who would choose to make these and eat them and I scratched the whole photo tutorial idea.

But the kids actually liked them. Si, in particular, couldn't get enough batter OR cupcakes (even as "muffins" aka without frosting!) But I guess that's a two year old boy for you.

"Tastes like dirt?! Sure! I'll take two!"

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!!!!

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?!?!

Menu Plan Mondays *revised

First an update on last weeks menu: The goat cheese stuffed chicken meal--mixed reviews. I loved it. I thought it was delicious and simple. The kids didn't like it at all, and Jess said he didn't think it had enough flavor, but i think I'm right :-) I mean, my kids didn't even want the cheese grits that night--who doesn't want cheese grits?!? The Fiesta Chowder is always good, as well as the chimichangas, but my kids were just picky this week. Cheese tortellini in broth and calzones were gobbled up--should have made more. We didn't have the black bean soup or the pork this week so they'll carry over:

Tuesday: No cooking! We're going to visit Jess's brother and family who are visiting Amelia Island.

Wednesday: Pork au Poivre, roasted potatoes, creamed spinach, applesauce

Thursday: Jess is at Ft. Bragg, we'll eat frozen pizza

Friday: Chili Corn stack ups (another favorite of Emily's and I have chili in the freezer)

Saturday: Chicken fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli and bread

Sunday: Black bean soup, bread, salad

Monday: Chili Dogs, veggies, chips and dip

Tuesday: I think it will be this because I have the ingredients--it's from my catering friend Tricia so it's gotta be good:

Mu Shu-Style Fajitas:

1 T. butter
2 eggs beaten
3 cloves minced garlic
1 lb boneless pork-cut in thin strips
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 c sliced mushrooms
1 8 oz.can bamboo shoots- if desired
6 green onions chopped
1 t. lemon juice
tortillas warmed

In skillet melt butter and scramble eggs with garlic, salt, and pepper. Remove and set aside. Saute carrots in oil –set aside.
If you want to add any other vegetables( ie; zucchini, yellow squash etc) do so now then remove and set aside. Brown meat in oil. Add seasoning of choice (fajita seasoning or just salt and pepper). Add ½ cup water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and add eggs, carrots and remaining ingredients except tortillas. Cook 2-3 minutes. Warm tortillas. Put meat and veg. mix in tortillas with plum sauce if desired and roll up like a burrito.

Salad and fruit are usually our sides.

Plum Sauce:
In saucepan combine ½ c grape or plum jelly, ¼ cup sliced green onions, and 1 T cornstarch. Add 2 T dry sherry or ( I use dry white wine if I don’t have sherry),2 T soy sauce and 1 T vinegar. Cook until bubbly then stir and cook 1-2 min longer.

Might be a little too exotic for my crew, but it sounds good, and we need to break away from the Tex/Mex - Italian rotation.

I did it!

I MADE YOGURT. Really. I made it. Real. Live. Yogurt. This is so cool.


We love yogurt. I use coupons and buy up what I can, or I buy the bigger tubs of plain and we sweeten it with splenda and Grandma's jam. But we still run through it fast around here. I have been wanting to learn to make it for while, and then I found this on one of my new favorite blogs, a crockpot blog.

I followed her directions almost exactly so I won't repeat them here--you can check her blog out if you want to try this. For my starter, I accidentally got vanilla yogurt instead of plain, and was worried it would mess up, but it didn't. The only tricky thing was finding organic, NOT ULTRA PASTEURIZED milk. It's ok to have pasteurized, but not ultra, and the organics at a few grocery stores are ultra. Our health food store has 2 brands that were not ultra pasteurized. I picked

The crockpot lady said to start with whole milk, so we did. Later we might try lower fat milk with added powdered milk or gelatin to help it thicken. I even thought we could try goats milk so Adeline could have a taste! Can you tell I'm a bit excited?

Here is our finished 1/2 gallon of yummy healthy yogurt.

On the left, next to the milk, you'll see I'm draining the whey from one batch, to thicken it like a Greek yogurt. I'm using a coffee filter. I've read whey is excellent to use in baked goods but I'll have to research it a little more.

Here is our favorite yogurt tester. She wanted to eat it all even before I sweetened hers with a little splenda.

I would HIGHLY recommend this easy crockpot recipe. And let me know if you try it!

Menu Plan Mondays

I usually do my coupon clipping and plan my weekly menus on Mondays (commissary's closed) and shop on Tuesdays. Why not blog it? AND ask, no beg and plead you bloggers to show me yours. Emily did it for a while (no pressure, em, still fighting the femcha) but wouldn't it be SO FUN and EASY if we were able to plan a week of menus, and then get 4 or 5 weeks in return? I did this once with girls here in Savannah on paper and I ended up with some family favorites. So. . . I'll get the ball rolling.

Tuesday: Chicken Breasts stuffed with Garlic and Herbed Goat Cheese, Cheese Grits, Broccoli, sliced apples

Wednesday: Use slow cooker black beans for Black Bean Chimichangas, save the rest for Saturday (from Emily's menu Mondays!), corn

Thursday: Southern Living's Fiesta Chowder, bread sticks, use leftover toppings from wed.

Friday: Pork au Poivre, roasted potatoes, creamed spinach, applesauce

Saturday: Black bean soup, french bread, veggies and sour cream dip

Sunday: cheese tortellini in light broth with Parmesan crisps, Italian mixed salad

Monday: Calzones (sauce and dough already in the freezer)

Also baking: Apple Buttermilk Muffins and Banana Bread

Oh, and tonight, since Jess has a deacon's meeting, we are having Honey infused oat cereal in a light milk bath.

This one's for Grandma

Tonight I made dinner (for the first time in ages but that's beside the point). Honey Mustard oven-fried chicken breasts with corn and spinach from Grandpa and Grandma's garden. All of the kids ate it up, but Si--he loves spinach. Here is a picture of him on his 3rd (or maybe 4th) helping. I actually had to remove the bowl of spinach from the table and hide it to get him to try the chicken. He came close to throwing a tantrum over when i took it away.

Although I'm fond of green leafy vegetables, I was honestly just trying to get through dinner to get to dessert. At about 5:15 my cookbook magically opened on "White and Dark Chocolate Pies" and I had to have them. I made our own version lickity split--and almost sugar-free. Here's what i did: Crumbled some vanilla wafers in the bottom of individual ramikins. In a mixer, combine 4 oz softened low fat cream cheese and a couple tablespoons of splenda. Spread over cookie "crust". Top with prepared chocolate pudding (we used instant sugar-free). Top that with a squirt of whipped topping. Top THAT with some chocolate shavings to be fancy. Make a big deal about it being a surprise and the kids will LOVE it! Here they are closing their eyes and waiting for dessert:

Tomorrow my baby turns 6. I'm going now to decorate his room. . . and cry.

Things that make me Happy

6 cases of my favorite drink, on sale at the commissary for $1.75!

2 dozen roses, sent from the man of few words
4 little monsters in 4 cute shirts approximately 180 skittles, half way there!
1 incredibly sexy soldier
too many calories to count, but oh so yummy.

Trying new things

Just thought I'd share an update on the cloth diapers. I really do like them. I've dealt with a few "dirty" ones and it wasn't too bad. Adeline wears them all the time, and Si, just when I'm pretty sure he's done all his business. I wash them every 2 days. Today I noticed they stunk, so I washed them again and rinsed and rinsed and now they smell fresh.

Although Adeline's booty is pretty big in these, I love the one-size diapers cause the littles can share them. Snaps in the front change the size.

here are the littles in their freshly laundered diapers:

ready to go!

and now, a new favorite snack. Ok, maybe not favorite. But Sam and I are lovin edamame! Ella will eat some, and Si really hates it. Sam's always been the one eager to try new foods. This is one you should try. We just bought it in the freezer section, followed the directions to cook it in the microwave, salted it, and they are ready to pop and eat (you don't eat the husk). We keep them in the fridge and pull them out for a healthy snack. Or we run to sonic for a cherry limeade cream slush.

Grandma and Grandpa's Garden

truely one of the best places on earth.

enjoying the fruits of our labor. . . smothered in syrup, butter, and whipped cream with a side of swedish pancakes.