Being Sick With Spices

We've been sick the past week. All 4 of us. We slept the days away, toughed it out through a couple of things we couldn't get out of, and even bought another humidifier to help us through it all. Through all the fever's and tissues, I did manage to make us a big pot of spice filled tortilla soup. Making the chips is always so tedious, but worth it in the end.


Then at the tail end of all the sickness, I got some much needed paperwork done, and Mark put our newly acquired "toy" in it's final resting spot. So late at night while the kids slept, we finally had dinner. I made a bagel sandwhich with cream cheese, baby swiss cheese, avocado, clover sprouts, tomato, and yummy fresh deli turkey. I saw it on Pinterest. I just had to have. I did. I liked. Staple?

Today I'm excited that I get to run to the fabric store, and make granola bars. I never thought to make these at home, but once I found a good and easy recipe, I had no excuse not to. I've also had eggplant on my mind, so I'll be researching how to prepare that, it should be interesting.

As far as kid's craft's go, the glow stick lanters didn't turn out as expected. It was a toxic mess, so I ended up just putting the glow sticks whole and uncut into the water. Mia still had a lot of fun with it, but it was nothing like the pictures that were posted. According to the comments, I was not the only who couldn't get it to work. I still have paint to make, but keep forgetting to buy more food coloring to make vibrant colors. Today I also plan to buy glitter. Lot's of glitter. I see a disastrous but fun mess in my near future.

Tomatoes, And A Side Of Pinapple

I've been getting lots of pinapple lately. It juices well, it's good to eat, and makes for good smoothies. It's a pain to cut up though, and the juice makes my hands itch.

One night for dinner, I made simple BLT's and a huge salad with avocado's. It was the first time we had had bacon in almost 2 months it seems. It was nice to have it but blended with all the other flavor's so it wasn't too overwhelming. I was disciplined enough to not throw cheese on this, and instead of mayo I used dijon mustard.

Salsa! The easiest salsa in the world. I put some ingredients into my food processor, I pushed a button, and out poured salsa! It was spicy but good enough for my box. I think I wrote it down that day.

It made the perfect amount for a few days of spicy goodness.

It's been so busy lately. Appointments, preschool, meetings, dinners. When I look at my calendar, it's full and very few days have nothing on them. Today is Mia's first Valentines Day party at school. So I had the pleasure of putting together Valentines for all her classmates last night - she picked them all out herself too.

So I made cupcakes, and I feel totally guilty about it. I bought a box, and spend about 10 minutes on them. I even bought frosting and just added red coloring. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 2 hours making cupcakes for kids that are going to devour them within' seconds. Cake kharma bit me in the ass, my left hand is stained red and it dosen't come off easily. Oh well. I took the time to decorate them at least so they're very "loving".

Spring? Yes, I'll Take Some Sherbert

Today's lunch. Rice milk, raspberry sherbert, fresh strawberries, banana's, peanuts, kiwi, and protein powder.

While outside exploring these past 2 days, I've found lots of things. Good and bad. I found this bulb, not in any dirt at all, but it's sprouting. It was near the daffodils, but not real sure what it is. So I am going to plant it in a small pot and watch it grow and see what comes of it. The bad? No matter what I seem to do, I can't seem to rid myself of all this garlic - elephant garlic - that is just not that good. I've pulled it twice now and yet I still have healthy sprouts. Ugh, if only they were good.

Tonight for dinner I made pasta with vodka cream sauce, and a large salad filled with avocado's. Mark bought this vodka a while ago, it's a potato vodka or something different, and holy crappola...just the smell of it makes me feel drunk for a second. I was a bit worried using it to cook with, but it came out great! While reducing it, the aroma was almost knock out strong, I'm almost scared to drink it.

I ventured into the Food Co-Op today in search of Mark's cereal ingredients. I will be learning how to roast and grind golden flax seeds. I guess I shouldn't really say "learn", it seems like a no brainer. I have a spice grinder so that's as easy as pushing a button for 15 seconds. The roasting, I guess I just throw in a hot pan and constantly stir? No oil, butter or anything. I even found some cool containers for all this stuff so it will all be well organized and even labeled. Hulled hemp seeds - expensive!

My to-do list on my fridge - the one for short term - is longer than normal. I am so behind on house duties. It dosen't matter that I put a huge bin of toys in storage, toys are still everywhere. It's endless. Always everywhere. It's been lovely but I have to scream now!

I'm dreaming a lot these days of a toy room. Mark and I have been talking about buying a laptop and getting rid of the desktop all together and just eliminate the whole office thing. That way we could turn the laundry room/office into a laundry room/toy room. Every single toy would either be in their rooms, or in the toy room. They seem to gravitate towards this room anyways. Well, actually we would stick the desktop in a hidden corner somewhere for the girls to play with. Isabel was introduced to the computer a few days ago, so I see 2 Kidzui accounts in the near future. I am sick to death of toys in the living room.

Everyday I think of my ever growing spring to-do list. Make laundry soap, finish dresser, finish hutch, paint ugly wall, paint hallway, paint the girls' toy cabinet, get the garden's started, get rid of cheap ugly bookcases and finally bring in the custome one sitting in my garage that Mark had as a child, utilize Aikido training and gain more patience, replant bamboo's, this, that, then another thing..kdlfasodfhoiwehfoiawneflkasdnflksadjf aotwor9w3ej p[d.

As long as a house renovation dosen't pop up somewhere, I'm golden.

Nuts, Grains, And Lost Marbles

This is Mark's new breakfast. It's probably the healthiest cereal in the world, and has already worked wonders for him. He sprinkles some cinammon on top, and calls it good. Not sure that I'm ready to jump on this bandwagon, but I'll let you know it if I ever decide to. These small packets are just to start out with to see if it helps him at all. I've already been scouting out bulk prices and have found most of this at either Haggen's or the Food Co-Op. Still working on hunting down the hemp seed.

Juice art. The green -or kiwi's- would only show up without the flash. I thought it looked cool enough to take a dark picture of. I believe this was oranges, mango, kiwi's, and carrot's. It was tart, but we drank it and the girls actually enjoyed it. They had fun drinking it together at their little table.

So I hadn't made bread in a while, and was a bit scared to at first. We've been eating so light, I was worried that bread would do me in. I snuck into Mark's cereal box and stole some raisens and roasted flax seeds. It gave the bread a nice flavor and tasted good with the vegetable soup and rice.

Veggie soup...yes, again. This time I added some fresh broccoli and garlic. I had more beef broth than chicken broth so I used both of them together and it came out well, had nice blending flavor. This pot is so big, sometimes I wish I had one smaller than this, but larger than my largest sauce pan. Spoiled.

Speaking of blending. This was my "lunch". Dry roasted peanuts (no salt), banana's, chocolate frozen yogurt, milk, a heavy scoop of protein powder, and of course ice. A full blender makes enough smoothie or shake for all 4 of us to have an appropriate serving. Again, I think the girls are liking these little juice and smoothie surprises. They giggle and laugh, and make a mess or two, then giggle some more. Then they pitter patter over to me and look up with the messiest little smiles asking for more. Makes me want to bake them a cupcake.

Today was my day at the preschool. Dealing with other peoples kids can be a challenge. Some are just brats, and some are so sweet. I've been toying around with some fundraising idea's lately, and feel I have come up with some good ideas, but haven't completly crossed the line toward's obligating myself. Baking a bunch of my most complicated cakes would require me to spend no less than 3 days in the kitchen - without a babysitter - to pull it off.

I've also been thinking about making a ton of chocolates. Liquor laced chocolates, butterscotch chocolates, hazelnut chocolates, peanut butter chocolates. It's far less time consuming, I can make ahead and freeze no problem since they have to be cool anyways. I could take my time to really perfect them all, and the stress - would be eliminated. I kinda don't like this fundraising thing.

Today's Take

While out today with my girls, I stocked up on a few extra fruit items for the juicer and blender (for smoothies). We fly through banana's already and have been using them for smoothies so I bought some more, just to ensure I didn't run out. Also found some good pears, a mango, and grapefruits.

I also came to the realization that I would have to change my grocery shopping schedule to accomadate for the constant flow of very fresh fruits and veggies. That will also take some adjusting as I spent a long time perfectly timing when I run out of staple items - so I only had to endure the sometimes 4 hour shopping trip just once every 2 weeks. It will be worth it in the end but will take some getting used to. I think I have a strong love-hate relationship with grocery shopping.

Being a mom has been difficult lately. Learning to let go, but wanting to hold on, is harder than I ever thought it could be. I've let go of Mia being a baby, and then a toddler, and accepted that she's now in preschool. I see her forming friendships at school and I know what's around the corner. Sleepover's, school 5 days a week, sports, teachers, a coach or two, friends parents - and then as I was browsing Pinterest, I found that perfect saying to match how I felt. "It's been lovely but I have to scream now!" Perfect.

I have this urge to re-arrange the house, mainly just the girls stuff. I still would like to update Mia's room. I came to the harsh reality just today in fact, that I would soon not be able to change Isabel on her changing table. She's just getting too big for it. I suppose I should figure out how to utilize it into a bookshelf or something. Before I know it, she's going to be in a big girl bed. It's been lovely but I have to scream now!

I'm excited to be moving forward in this direction, but it scares me at the same time. My parents will never fully understand how much I appreciated the freedom I was given as a child. I wonder if I'll be that strong as a mother as time goes on. I only see myself as the overprotective, ready to pounce, eyeballing every strangers every move, type of mother that desperatly needs to learn how to give my girls the freedom I had, but still be myself, as well as a protective, loving parent. Is there really a middle ground? I need to find it.

The Juicer

Today I started juicing. I don't plan on getting obsessive over it, but would like to do it at least once a day. My husband was up with me this morning (not normal) so I thought it would be a good time to start. I started with basics and juiced apples, oranges, and carrots.

Here we go! It takes a lot to make a little. I remember that from the last time we juiced.

Breakfast. It really wasn't bad, the apples definitly helped with the flavor. I will say it didn't go well with my morning coffee, but luckily I was in a hurry to get Mia to preschool and head down to the Food Co-Op. Today was 4% Friday, so our preschool recieved 4% of the Skagit Valley Food Co-Op's total sales for the day. So I went down and contributed some bucks, talked to customers and promoted. It was fun, different, and should be pretty successful! Yay!

Dinner. Chicken, avocado, tomato, cucumber, spinach, arugula, seasonings and a bit of Italian dressing. Did good for my 60% uncooked! I did make a pot of Miso, since I stocked up on fresh Miso from the co-op, and I made some sweet potato mash.

Oh and I almost forgot! For lunch I made a protein smoothie. Bananas, chocolate syrup, chocolate frozen yogurt, ice, and a scoop of protein powder. It was yummy! Sort of craving a burger, but I'm good. Tomorrow I shall experiement with kiwi's. Goodnight!

The Last 2 Weeks

For those that don't know, the past 2 weeks have been crazy, scary, and full of anxiety. My husband was admitted into the hospital after going to the walk-in clinic with sharp stomach pains. He was there for 3 days. After running a bunch of tests including a CT scan, he was diagnosed with a severe case of diverticulitis, and a few things on the side.

As a result, he has been on more meds than we can keep track of, it's terrible, and terrible on him. I now have to change my whole thinking of food. He has been on a special bland, soft food diet and it's been hard to come up with things. Last night I did make a good vegetable soup with some jasmin rice that was actually really good, easily digestable, and something I would make again just because it was good.

We were never food junkies, but we weren't health nuts either. We were in the middle. We always stayed away from processed foods and made things from scratch, so I'd say 90% of the time, we knew exactly where our food came from. No packets, no premade, crap.

Now I have to step this up a notch. I have been thinking about how I could go about this without freaking out or starving myself. So here it is:

60% uncooked fruits and veggies.

30% breads, pastas, and any cooked deliciousness that we would enjoy.

10% proteins - preferably chicken and fish before red meat, and an occasional sweet treat and any fats.

Part of me is excited, part of me is dreading, and part of me wants to see how many vegetables I can put in my shopping cart next week. Instead of the regular 2 bags worth, I expect to see 5-6 bags of fresh fruits and veggies. Now, I also have a juicer, but that's a whole other post.