iPhone Tales : 21

Quinoa burgers, back on the meatless monday bandwagon!

Found this in Holden's backpack, was relieved to hear this sweet little girl made one for everyone in the class:-)  I am NOT ready for notes from girls to come home!  Of course when they really mean something I will probably never see them:-/

Me two weeks into "no shampoo", and using oil to clean my face...I'm loving it!

This makes my heart smile:-)  Open House at Holden's school.

cookies for Preschool last day, I did this at 5:30 am INSTEAD of P90X:-)

Teacher gift ideas from Pinterest:-)

Filled with orange flavored or colored treats:-)

S'MORE camping kit:-)

Watch out!  This blanket is ALIVE!

Eye See You!

I think he is OUT!  Too bad I had to wake him up:(

Tom and I a little wine tasting in our new neighborhood:-)  PERFECT DAY!

A skinny little secret...

Do you know about SkinnyTaste?  It's a blog that has GREAT recipes, with all the weight watcher and calorie info on it!  AND they are "skinnyfied"  meaning you can eat them and not feel guilty!  Today I made these.  Everyone approved of them except for Holden, but they have nuts...what can I say?

You really should check out the blog!  I have made a ton of her recipes, I found it when I decided exercise was not going to cut it, and I had to make some dietary changes...I love that it is mostly whole foods, and I confess, I make modifications to make them more whole food like...

A Birthday Party...

For the littles....if you remember Miss A was born a little early on Holden's 3rd birthday (and Daniel's due date!), and then Daniel was born a week later...SO we decided to celebrate them together this year!  I made everyone a shirt, here you see the boys shirts and the sketch for Miss A's:-)

Here is Miss A's shirt all finished:-)  She was SO excited when she got it!

There were lots of kiddos in the pool of course!

Our little fish...

I made these pretty AMAZING banana chocolate cupcakes...and then we decorated them with worms and cookie crumbs, and pretzels to make dirt worms, and butterfly cakes:-)

Daniel was SO excited to have "Happy Birthday" sung to him:-)  AND apparently Anya was excited to blow out the candles as she blew out Daniel's too.  At the time he didn't seem to mind, but now he talks about it A LOT.

The kids enjoyed the cupcakes:-)

Holden lucked out and got a gift and card that day too!;-)

The older siblings helped the littles read their cards:-)

There were lots of people, gifts, love and of course fun!  We were really touched that so many people came to celebrate our little ones!

This is Miss A's smile:-)  We are trying to work on it!

It was a FUN day!

Memorial Day

Great Weather, Great Friends and of course Great food!

We had some friends over to enjoy the pool, and it was SO much fun!  Hello Summer I look forward to doing this more often.

Just in case your interested I made this:

Bangin Shrimp

Turkey Burgers (my own recipe)

Ginger Rice with Fava Beans (Placer County Real Food)

Fruit Skewers with Honey Yogurt Sauce

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

Cherry Limeade Granita (minus the vodka)

Thank you Pinterest!

Easy Crockpot Chicken!

Did you know you can "roast" a WHOLE chicken in the crockpot?  Well one that will FIT in your crockpot:-)  Seriously! I wish I had taken a picture, IT WAS SO good!  

I started with this recipe, only I lined the bottom of the crockpot with onion, and sliced garlic, and then a layer of lemon slices.  And I made up my own spices with what sounded good, including grill seasoning, chili powder, cayenne, a little chili oil, and oregano:-)  I used some of the ones she listed too...I know I am not much help in the spice department!  I just use what sounds good at the exact time I am cooking, never really think too much about it!

But I cooked it on high for 1 hour, then low for 5 hours and it was moist and SO good!  Both boys ate it and Tom said it was tasty!  I WILL be making this recipe again!  REALLY I WILL;-P Says the woman who RARELY (Tom would say NEVER) makes a recipe twice!

Anyway TRY IT!

12.23 DPP 2011

Yesterday we packed up our last cinnamon rolls for our friends. I still will bake another batch, because my husband has requested we compare these to his grandmother's recipe:-)  So tomorrow I will venture into this family recipe:-) along with my tried and true lasagna:-)  Christmas food is YUMMY!

12.22 DPP 2011

Last night we had some friends over who are fellow foodies, it took me a while to decide what to make but, I made this AMAZING stuffed pork loin, it had dried fruit and chestnuts...Yum, it paired beautifully with our wine, and the potatoes and Green Goddess dressing she brought:-)  And we had cinnamon rolls and ice cream for dessert!  YUM!

Sorry I didn't get any plated pictures, and sorry to the vegetarians out there!

12.15 DPP 2011

Today was a potluck in Holden's class...The paper came home, the instructions were to bring something that is tradition, something you have that means "Christmas" to you.  Really?  us?  tradition?  especially when it comes to eating:-)  Tom tells everyone that I never make a recipe twice.  I mean I am a "foodie" I LOVE to cook, but mostly I LOVE to try new recipes.  I am always trying new things, I have VERY few "staples".  SO this was HARD.  I really didn't want to make something sweet, figuring the class would be full of desserts and cookies(I was right), but the ONLY thing I make every holiday season is the Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls.  I gift them, and we eat them.  They barely make it out of the oven without being eaten.  Hence the non full dish above.  SO this is what I made and they were GOOD.

More Placer County Real Food:-)

Tonight was Beef Stuffed Peppers, and Tomato Corn Salad. YUM! It was adapted from the August 24 menu in Placer County Real Food. Mainly I substituted grass fed beef for the lamb, and sunflower sprouts for the pea shoots, but YUM! It was SO good! Daniel liked the eggplant and peppers, Holden well, he ate the corn. Pretty typical right now.  Seriously eat fresh, eat local, and if you are local get this cookbook!  AND take her class if you get a chance it's FUN!  OK I'm done:-)

Dinner Tonight

Tonight I made a recipe from the Placer County Real Food cookbook.  It's AMAZING!  Seriously if you are local you should HAVE this cookbook!  It is set up with a weekly menu based off what is available at our farmer's markets at that time of year.  YUM!  Beth and I took a cooking class with one of the authors, it was awesome and delicious.  This is part of the meal we made.  I have made the salad a couple of times now, and Tom thought this was excellent:-)  

I need to get better at photographing my food though!  Oh well live and learn. 

I HEART Jamie Oliver:-)

So if you have talked to me in person lately you have probably heard a little about food...I watched an epsiode of Oprah where they were talking about Food Inc...and Micheal Pollan was on talking about his "food rules"...It was all quite interesting and spurred something in me...I think it has something to do with wanting my kids to eat well...and knowing that I need to eat well for my kids to.  So I checked out In Defense of Food by Micheal Pollan, and read it.  I loved it!  I can't believe what a business growing food has become and how much we have altered the quality of our food to provide bigger cheaper food...it's actually quite eye opening for me to learn how different even live animal foods are from what they were 50 years ago.  And to learn how non-diversified our produce has become!  Not to mention the fact that processed food changes per the fad nutrionism...Omega-3's anyone?

Now I already shop fairly organic, I love to cook, and I am kind of crunchy:-)  But I love me a burger and fries and I realized I could should be doing more.  I am a vote with your wallet thinker, and I am trying to do that more...I have started baking a lot of our bread...whole wheat even:-)...and I also started watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution...I find it very entertaining and I am totally onboard with his desire to help Americans learn how to get away from processed food and cook real food at home.  And don't get me started on the school food...

Anyway that leads to the above meal...I checked out Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cook book from the library and immediately marked about 80% of the meals as ones I wanted to try.  I also told Tom and Holden I wanted Jamie To come cook with us in our house:-)  Holden was fascinated by this and talks about it now like it is going to happen...:-)  Tonight we had the Quick Salmon Tikka with homemade naan.  it was SO easy, and amazing!  I was sure Holden wouldn't eat it, but he devoured the salmon and has said whenever I say I am making salmon he will say "YUM!"  This coming from a kid who usually says I don't like it when he hears what we are having.

SO anyway, our new menus include less meat altogether...more vegetarian meals, more fish, less processed foods (which for us is mostly bread products).  And definitely eating in more...trying to find easy meals that can combat the "I don't feel like cooking" nights in which we tend to get take out...So far the meals in his cookbook are quite easy...I made it harder on myself making the naan but even that was pretty easy!

Oh yeah and I started a small garden...from which I got the cilantro for the meal tonight...I love that!  Just thought I would share:-)