smoothie mornings

we often have smoothies as part of breakfast in the morning. or we have them for an afternoon snack. it seems to be the only way to get green veggies in jobot these days.

(these photos aren't the best quality...our kitchen does not have much natural light, and it was still mostly dark outside anyway. most of the photos are blurry, but that captures how life feels at this stage! a lot of these days, especially ones that involve making something in the kitchen with a one and three year old, seem like a blur!)


the kids each get a little pile of kale (or sometimes spinach) and frozen berries to throw in the blender. sometimes we add a banana or other fruit.

next we pour in the kefir or yogurt and add some milk if we need a little more liquid. sometimes we throw in a few ice cubes, if we feel like it. maybe some honey or stevia.

 then the kids take turns running the blender.

there is usually some fighting.

and someone often ends up crying.

and then we are done!

fast real food: lunch simplified

lunch used to be a chaotic meal...especially on days when jeremy worked and the kids and i spent the morning out. if we were out, i found that i dreaded going home knowing that i would be faced with hungry children, a diaper change, trips to the bathroom...and the task of making lunch in the midst of it all.

jeremy takes a lunch to work with him everyday, s o i decided to just start making lunches for all of us the night before. we didn't have enough small containers for everyone's lunches and it was getting complicated, so i ordered a set of these containers...and they are perfect.

each night, before a workday, i make lunches for each of us. (jeremy's lunch was already gone when i took the photo above). that's a pretty typical lunch around here... for me: snap peas, tomatoes, ranch dip, cottage cheese, and sliced strawberries. for love: applesauce, cottage cheese, tomatoes, sliced strawberries, and veggie straws. for jobot: half an avocado and applesauce. the lunches vary slightly, but this is pretty much what they have looked like lately. jeremy always takes some almonds and a string cheese to work for snacks, and they fit in the container with his lunch as well.

when lunchtime comes, i no longer get stressed...instead...i reach into the fridge, take out these containers, and we eat. it's so easy, and healthy. and there aren't a million containers to wash. i often don't feel like making lunches in the evening, but knowing that it will make the next morning easier is good motivation for me.

last week, i decided to take the kids to meet jeremy for lunch...so we just brought our lunches from the fridge and had an easy lunch as a family. i look forward to continuing this system this summer and being able to have spontaneous picnics with the kids, because lunch will already be made and packed!

valentine's day

happy valentine's day!

it's not a big holiday around our house, but we try to make the day just a little bit special.

we started out the day with a special breakfast of cinnamon rolls, eggs, and strawberries. i made them last night from this recipe. they are low-carb, gluten, and sugar free. the first batch was a terrible disappointment. they smelled delicious, but were as hard as rocks! i baked them too long and also learned that i needed to add more almond flour than the recipe says. the second batch turned out better. not perfect, but good enough that we were able to enjoy them for breakfast this morning. i put heart stickers on toothpicks and stuck them in the cinnamon rolls to add a festive feel this morning.

we exchanged valentine's cards. always homemade at our house.

and the other day i made some truffles, because i knew the day wouldn't be complete without chocolate. (the recipe is from a book i recently got from the library: sensational stevia desserts, by lisa jobs). they were quite a lot of work, but they are delicious and definitely satisfy a desire for chocolate.

dutch baby

we usually have pancakes for breakfast on saturday morning. it's just our tradition. we get up, jeremy makes coffee, i have tea, and little one and i mix up the batter and make pancakes. this last saturday, i decided to shake things up a bit and make something i've been wanting to try for awhile...a dutch baby. i've never had one before. it was so easy, and so delicious. we all loved it! it will definitely be made again.

i put together a recipe from several that i found on the internet. here's how to make one...

ingredients:

2 TB butter
4 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk (i used whole, raw milk, but you can probably use any kind?)
apple slices (optional)
cinnamon (optional)

1. preheat the oven to 475 F. put butter in cast iron pan (from what i have read online, you can also use a glass pyrex dish if you don't have cast iron) and put it in the oven to let the butter melt.

2. while butter is melting, slice up an apple. after butter is melted, turn the oven down to 425 F, remove pan from oven and put the apple in. sprinkle with cinnamon. put back in the oven until the apples are slightly softened.

3. while apples are softening, mix together eggs, flour, and milk. take pan out of oven, pour flour/egg/milk mixture over apples and place pan back in oven.

4. bake 20 to 25 minutes. can be served with lemon juice, maple syrup, and/or powdered sugar.

on a friday night

we just returned from a beautiful walk in the park. as we walked, leaves fell from the trees all around us and our feet crunched leaves on the ground. little one ate an apple in her stroller and then played on the swings and slide. it was in the seventies today (!), so we even took off her shoes and pants and let her wade for a bit. we threw rocks in the water and chased the ducks. a perfect start to the weekend.

we have been quite busy these days. things at our church are going very well. we are really enjoying the young adult book study we are leading and we enjoy the youth group as well. it is fun for us to be working together to lead those groups and we are seeing how our strengths and weaknesses really go together very well.

in other news, my hubby ran over and killed a squirrel the other day. it was the squirrel's fault because it ran out in front of our car and then stood there trying to figure out which way to go. but, the whole experience was a bit traumatic.

aside from another batch of waffles, i haven't made any sourdough recipes in the past few days.

next week is a bit on the lighter side schedule-wise, so we are planning to take the little one to a pumpkin patch.

i realized i haven't taken any photographs this entire month, so i need to change that.

and that is all for tonight.

saturday date night

we stayed in. appetizers while baby ate dinner. 

 

the main course after she was in bed.

and then dessert!

banana peanut butter smoothie shake

i went to make smoothies for breakfast this morning, but felt like making something a little different than our usual blend. i threw a few things in the blender and ended up with a wonderfully yummy treat that i will definitely be making again in the future!

ingredients:
frozen bananas (mine were peeled and cut into chunks before freezing...makes them easy to throw in the blender) - it was probably a total of two or three bananas
ripe (non-frozen) bananas - i used two
cocoa powder
peanut butter
whole milk

i often don't measure when i'm making something, so i don't know how much of each thing i put in. i just tasted it a couple of times to get it right. this totally tasted like a peanut butter banana shake. it was so good!

mexican pizza

mexican pizza

our little one is quite the picky eater these days. i often struggle with knowing what to feed her - especially since we are not at home and do not have our usual food resources around us. i recently started making mexican pizzas. they are easy, nutritious, and yummy and are perfect for a pinch when we need a quick, easy meal. in fact, we're going to have them for supper tomorrow after a busy day of church and our nephew's birthday party.

you need:

tortillas (any kind will work. i've been using food for life's sprouted corn tortillas and they work great)

refried beans or leftover beans from making beans and rice

cheese (i use raw sharp cheddar, but any kind will do!)

toppings...tomatoes, olives, corn, whatever is on hand...

1. assemble the "pizza"

2. bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted to your satisfaction

3. enjoy! these are really yummy with a bit of sour cream and salsa.

real food on the road

it being my anniversary, you would think i would be out on a romantic date with my love tonight. (my sweet husband who hacked into my blog to leave the romantic message in the last post. what a guy). instead, he is at church helping with vacation bible school, and i am at home with our little one who is already in bed for the night. he won't be home until close to 9, and vacation bible school is every night this week, so we decided we will leave the celebrating for saturday. maybe we will go to the ocean. we are only twenty minutes away.

i haven't been feeling well for the past six days or so. some days worse than others, but i must have caught some kind of nasty bug somewhere. due to my being sick, we still haven't celebrated my birthday, which was on thursday (and yes, i did cry because i was sick on my birthday). we are a bit behind on the celebrating over here, so we will have a lot to catch up on this weekend. i am feeling a bit better today, so things are looking up.

while i have a bit of quiet time tonight (except for the neighbor's dog that barks all night long), i thought i would write a post about real food on the road.

on our recent eight day cross-country trek, we learned a bit about balancing our desire to eat real, whole, healthy food with the reality of being on the road for eight days, not having access to a kitchen, and traveling with a one-year old. we ate meals in all kinds of different places, and by the time we finally arrived at our destination, i concluded that we did a pretty good job of eating real food on the road.

i would have loved to make all kinds of things to take on the road with us...crackers, yogurt, bread, etc...but flying home from our trip to california and leaving for our road trip left two weeks to get our house ready to be put on the market and pack up our family of three for a summer away from home. i did what i could and called it good.

breakfast:
most of the hotels we stayed in had a free continental breakfast available in the mornings. as we were on a tight budget for this trip, we appreciated this but it was challenging for us as we are used to eating eggs, smoothies, quiche, or soaked oatmeal for breakfast. we compromised. a couple of times we brought our own bread (ezekial bread) and jam (raspberry) to the dining area and made toast. one morning i decided i was going to have a waffle (you know, the kind that you make in the little waffle maker?). i didn't feel very well after that and didn't do that again. our little one ate instant oatmeal - i chose the one with the least amount of things added to it and decided i had to be okay with that.

there were a couple of hotels that didn't offer breakfast, so i brought boiled eggs and yogurt and granola along for those mornings and that worked out great. we all liked it, and it was easy. one morning near the end of our trip, we went to the hotel lobby for breakfast and there was nowhere to sit. we were staying in a historic little town at the time, so we decided to try a local place for breakfast and we were really glad we did. we were able to get eggs, and we also treated ourselves to bacon, hash-browns, and toast. we met some locals, sipped some hot coffee, and enjoyed a breakfast out.

yogurt and granola in our hotel room before we hit the road.

suggestions for next time: bring some instant oatmeal to eat for breakfast, definitely bring the yogurt and granola again

lunch:
we decided before we left that we wanted to do picnic lunches. we figured it would be a good way to break up the day, it would save us money because we wouldn't be going out, and we could decide what we wanted to eat. for the most part, our picnic lunches worked out great.

on day 1, we were getting ready to stop for lunch just as a massive thunderstorm was moving in. we had a big breakfast that morning and we weren't that hungry anyway, so we just snacked in the car. we had our picnic for supper that day instead. on day 2, we spent the entire day driving through 40 mph winds and decided not to attempt a picnic. we stopped for lunch somewhere that day, but i don't remember where. another day, we were driving through the desert and could not find anywhere to stop and have our picnic. we finally came upon a little desert town but couldn't find a park (or shade!) anywhere, so we ended up eating at a sonic. there was another day when it was very windy, so i quickly threw together some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a parking lot and we ate them in the car.

what did we have for our picnic lunches?

sandwiches made with sprouted ezekial bread (until it got moldy and then we bought the best bread we could find at a grocery store along the way), lunchmeat (nitrate and sugar free), tomato, hummus, and mustard

carrots, celery, and hummus

raisins

for a break from sandwiches one day, we had salmon on kashi crackers

we also had bananas and oranges along, so we had a nice variety of options for lunch.

suggestions for next time: consider making sandwiches in the morning, especially if it is going to be a windy day

supper:
there were a couple of days when we had sandwiches for dinner in our hotel room, but we usually ate at a restaurant for dinner. it was nice to go out for dinner after a long day of driving. we chose local restaurants and enjoyed the experience! because we were on a budget, and because we couldn't really keep leftovers anyway, we almost always shared a dinner. it worked out really well. one night we shared a buffalo burger, one night a grilled chicken dinner, one night a steak, and the rest i don't remember. our little one ended up eating macaroni and cheese or spaghetti for dinner most nights.

fort collins, co. coppersmith's brewery. beer bread. yum!

suggestions for next time: rack my brain to try to come up with something we can bring along for baby to eat for dinner (she is very picky these days!)

snacks:
we took quite a few snack breaks during our trip. when baby needed a break (or we needed a break) or when it was taking longer to get to our destination than we thought and we needed something to tide us over...out came the snacks!

pecans

pistachios

granola bars

annie's cheddar bunnies (for baby!)

homemade trail mix (peanuts, sunflower seeds, and raisins)

and of course, fruits and veggies.

treats:

what is a road trip without treats? we got a couple of treats along the way. actually, we kept saying, "today we are going to stop for ice cream"...and then we wouldn't be able to find an ice cream place, or we would see one but the little one would be sleeping and we wouldn't want to stop, and we would get to the end of the day and we wouldn't have gotten ice cream! we did finally stop for ice cream.

no...we didn't buy her two ice cream cones. when we stopped for ice cream, the only time she wasn't crying was when she was holding both of our ice cream cones! we ended up leaving the restaurant and eating the ice cream in the car while we drove.

and of course we got sarsaparilla floats. and they tasted so good in the middle of the desert!

we also brought several treats along with us. we figured that this stopped us from buying more unhealthy sweet things along the way. here's what we brought:

newman's own licorice. i bought this at the health food store before we left because i thought it would be a good treat to bring along. this is the tangerine flavor, which i didn't like, but we also tried the raspberry flavor and that one was really good.

chocolate chip cookies

dried organic apricots.

sugarless peanut butter fudge brownies i made a while back and took out of the freezer before we left.

so...that's what we ate! i am pretty happy with how it all went. of course, there are always unexpected things that come up when traveling, but i think we did pretty well overall. we will be doing it again in two months when we drive home, and it's nice to have more of an idea of what to expect after doing it on the way out here.

orange

last night we had breakfast for dinner at the home of some friends-who-are-like-family. their backyard is very much like one i dream about...fruit trees, flowers, a garden, a playground, sandbox, and a strawberry patch. the little ones could walk right over to it, pick strawberries, and eat them right there. love it.

i was thrilled when we picked oranges off of their tree and they made juice. that's as fresh as it gets. being a midwestern girl, it was quite a novelty to me. it was the best orange juice i have ever had.

this is our last day in california. tomorrow we fly home. after ten days at home, we will be hopping in the car for our great roadtrip of 2011. we will be driving 2300 miles across the country over the span of seven days. we have plans to stop at several major landmarks and a few small ones too, taking our time and enjoying being together as a family. our final destination is a city in the state of california, where my husband will be serving in a church for the summer. we are very excited about this summer adventure, and i plan to share it on this blog. 

i am currently in the process of figuring out what to pack for a seven-day roadtrip, as well as for a summer away from home. starting on wednesday, i will be busy preparing to put our house on the market before we head out for the summer, as well as getting things ready for our trip. i am trying to put together a menu of real food to eat along the way, and i have a few other projects to complete before we leave for the summer.

i'm trying to enjoy our last day here before all the busyness begins once we get home. our little one helps me slow down. she is full of joy.

treats

this morning i woke up to find a layer of snow on the ground. it's a good thing there was a baby in the next room crying for my attention, or i definitely would have crawled back into bed, pulled the covers over my head, and told my husband to wake me when spring decides to show up for real (at this point, i don't think i would have cared how long it took).

mondays always seem to be long days at our house. jeremy has a full morning and early afternoon of class, and then he works an extra hour and gets home shortly after seven. the combination of this long day, my strong desire to be with family in california, piles of laundry to fold, the snow this morning, and still struggling to get back into our routine really put me in a funk this morning.

so what was i to do? well...after folding those piles of laundry and doing various tasks around the house, i decided it was time to bake something. i couldn't decide between brownies and mounds candy bars, so i made both.

the brownies are absolutely delicious. they are very rich, so a little goes a long way, which i like. our little one loves to "help" me cook and bake, and she fully participated in the creation of these brownies. she poured, stirred, and loved helping me grease the pan with butter. when i cook or bake, i like to let her touch as many things as possible - all those different textures are great for learning. fingers stuck in the salt container? sure, why not. a little one reaching for a handful of batter? that's fine, see what it feels like! this is all easier when daddy is here to hold her up next to me, but when he is not, we make it work.

greasing the pan:

the recipe for the brownies is from elanaspantry.com. i haven't made very many recipes from her blog, but the ones i have made have turned out very well and i look forward to trying more. i appreciate the fact that the food she makes is nutritious. although these brownies are sweets, they don't have any sugar, and are packed with a lot of nutrition. (i have to confess that the ones i made did have some sugar in the chocolate chips. we had a bag of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips left over from the little one's birthday party that i couldn't let go to waste. usually, however, i would probably use a chopped up dark chocolate bar or dark chocolate chips). 

i used honey instead of agave nectar, and peanut butter instead of almond butter. yum. some (most!) of these brownies will definitely be going in the freezer.

the "mounds candy bars" were next on my list. the recipe calls for a candy bar mold, which i don't have, so i decided to make them in muffin cups...similar to how i made peanut butter cups a while back (after clicking on the link, scroll down to find the recipe). because of that, they ended up being more like mounds candy drops for me. either way, they are yummy. i melted half of the chocolate on the stove, poured it into the muffin cups and let it harden in the fridge (for about 15 minutes?). meanwhile, i mixed up the coconut filling using honey instead of agave nectar. i formed little balls and placed them on top of the hardened chocolate. 

waiting for another layer of chocolate...

i melted the rest of the chocolate, poured it over the coconut filling, and put it all in the fridge to harden.

 they turned out kind-of big, so they are definitely best cut in half. 

yummy treats over here. they don't take away the snow, or the laundry, or the sadness we are experiencing...but it is therapeutic and satisfying to create them, and a great little treat for the day.