Veggies the Cool Way

I am not one of those moms that routinely tries to sneak veggies into my kids. Most of the time, it's obvious, like salad or grilled vegetable of some sort.  I don't have time to mix spinach puree into my brownies!

BUT if you find a recipe that can get veggies into your family and they want to eat a lot of them, that is always a good thing!

I have been seeing these all over the place lately, they are zucchini and sweet potato "chips". Basically you slice them SUPER thin (I used a mandolin), the width of a quarter. Then spray oil on them, sprinkle with the spices of your choice (I used salt and paprika).  You then cook on 225 degrees for about an hour, then turn the pan around and cook another 30+ minutes until you see and feel them getting crispy.  Keep checking towards the end, because they will start to burn.  And they do crisp up a bit more after you take them out.  They were AWESOME.  Got the idea HERE.

Next, I needed a meatless meal the next night, but still wanted it to be hearty enough to stand alone.  This was butternut squash baked ziti, and I am not gonna lie to you, I am not sure what all I put in it.  That probably does not help those of you who like a recipe.  I got the general concept from doing a recipe search for butternut squash lasagna.

Basically, I roasted a butternut squash that I had cut into cubes on 425F, along with a whole sliced onion.  I pureed all that together with salt, cinnamon, and a little chicken stock.  Then the cheese pasta layer was ricotta, spinach, mozzarella, a little Tony's and I pureed that and mixed with noodles.  Then layer this on top of one another, and complete with cheese and spinach leaves.  It was YUM-O! 

These last two things have nothing to do with veggies, and everything to do with carbs.  BUT, if you eat your veggies, then you get double the carbs.  Right?

This is the Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler.  This looks NOTHING likes hers.  Oh wow.  Who cares.  I mean, it has an entire stick of butter in this small pan.  It rocked.  And there is fruit in it.  And that is close to a veggie.  

I am not really sure why I have not made homemade sandwich bread in awhile.  I did.  It was quite possibly the softest, yummiest, flavorfulest any other "est" words that you can think of that describe bread, since I cannot seem to think of more.  I kept trying to come up with an excuse to incorporate it into every meal today.  Recipe is HERE.

10 Second Entertainment

Sometimes I feel like I am trying to do all this "fun" stuff for or with the boys and they could care less.

Maybe I am just venting.  Or maybe I am wanting to know if my kids are the only ones that last about 10 seconds on one activity and then get bored.  

I took the boys and some friends HERE to pick blackberries.  I thought, what a fun life experience and they love berries.  Two minutes in they were done.  That is even counting the time they were sitting in the hayride to get there.  Complaining, whining, wanting to go already.

Then I pulled out our bag of busy bag activities (which if you want to be a part of mine, go HERE, although this post may not encourage you to do so!)  They had FIVE activities and were done playing in less than 10 minutes.  I actually forced them to complete one whole game of bingo.  They were not happy.

I then saw an idea HERE (hers is WAY cool, check it out) to make an obstacle course with pool noodles and stuff like that.  Her boys played with it for over thirty minutes.  Mine both went through it twice.  Then asked for a snack...

So.  My dilemma.  Do I force my kids to keep doing an activity after they are done with it?  Do I just stop trying to do this fun stuff?  Or is it normal?

Yummy ;)

Just wanted to point out that there are SO many places to get produce other than the grocery!

We got this stuff through a produce co-op, as well as at the farmer's market! If you want to know where or other information, leave me a comment.

The aftermath of the stomach flu...

BEST COOKIE RECIPE!!!

Yeah...so.  I have no pictures.  Want to know why?  Because I ate them all.  As in, ate them all before it even crossed my mind to take a photo of them.

Let me just tell you though.  I have been trying to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe for about two years.  I have found it.

Well, not exactly chocolate chip (this recipe calls for white chocolate chips), and I added craisens as well. They were soft, kind of flat, with crispy edges.  They are amazing if I have not mentioned it yet.

HERE is the recipe.  Go make them now.  And then eat all of them.

Busy Bag Swap!!!

What is a busy bag swap, you ask???

Well for starters, a busy bag, is just a gallon sized bag with an activity for a child in it.  It can range from something as simple as pipe cleaners and beads to string on it, to an elaborate felt racetrack with cars and moving parts.

Here are two of mine that I did for a gift for a friend

If you have a kid, or even are around kids, you know they can get bored easily at times, ESPECIALLY with summer coming.  Instead of plopping them in front of the tv all the time, these bags can help to foster creativity, imagination, and even sneak in some actual learning!!!  The great thing about these, is that they can be used for quiet time when the child stops napping, or as a homeschool supplement, or on road trips, the uses are endless!  And some will be more simple than others, so you can add to them, or give those as a gift.  Be creative with the bags once you get them!

So we are each going to make these bags, and swap them with one another!  I did this once before around Christmas and it was a huge success.  I will give you the criteria that I found on THIS site that I think explains it better than I can (here a few more links to explain...HERE and HERE and HERE)

Each activity needs to meet the following criteria:

• Self-contained.  This way, you can just grab a bag and GO! (without having to add a number of supplies to the bag in order to make it useful.)

• Transportable.  Yes, they will definitely be used at home, but I want to be able to grab a few bags to take to a restaurant, a waiting room, plane trips, car rides, etc.

• Convenient.  None of the bags will have supplies that require major set-up or clean-up: (no paint, watercolors, liquids, sand, dirt, etc.)

• Inexpensive. I didn’t want anyone spending too much money on this project!

• Easy to Make: I didn’t want anyone spending hours and hours and hours making their activity (unless you really want to).
• Labeled with Instructions: We need an easy way to be able to see what the activity is and how to do the activity (I recommend a sticker label on the outside, but whatever works best for you)

To put it in the most basic terms, YOU are going to make 20 (or how ever many people sign up) bags that are exactly the same.  Then you will get them to me (mail them yourself if you live far away), and I will then give/send to you 19 other activities, and also back your own.  You will then have 20 activities to have for your child!!!  Isn't that the coolest?!?!

I am going to be a lot more strict about dates and such this time around, so please make sure that this is a commitment that you want to make and have time for.  The deadline for letting me know that you want to participate and what your activity is will be Friday, June 1st (although you may begin working on it sooner.)  I am capping the number at 20, so the first 19 people to email me-howdyqueen@yahoo.com, get a spot.  And once an activity is taken, I will email that out to the rest of the group so that we do not have duplicates.  The deadline to get me all of you bags will be Sunday, June 17th (I will be mailing them out that next morning to those of you who live far away.)

If you have questions, please email me.  Please invite friends to be a part of this as well, the more the merrier.  If you need ideas, there are TONS just by doing a Google search or on Pinterest.  Or you can even come up with your own!  Here are a few places to get you started if you need them...HERE, and HERE and HERE)

*IF you would like to receive bags, but do not have time to participate, I will make them for you, and charge you 25$ to do so (I bought some recently and it cost me 40$, so this is a really great deal!)  Let me know soon if that is something that you want, so that I can get an idea of how many extras I will need to make!

I am SO super excited to do this again, and I look forward to hearing from you :)

A Simple Party

I felt a little bad at first, when I decided to have a small party for Eli.  I had thrown fairly large first birthday gatherings for the other two boys.

BUT, after talking to some friends, and really thinking about it, decided it was ok.  I mean, he's a boy, so that helps in the him wanting pictures of the party when he's 30 years old dilemma. And also, I did not have the energy to do another big party right now.  As well, Eli is kind of simple and low key to begin with.  So I went with it.

Although, now in retrospect, asking Noah for ideas on where we went should not have been my game plan.  Of course HE likes loud, lights, crazy places.  Eli, not so much.

Rainforest Cafe it was.  Oops.

But then we started to have a little fun

Hudson looks like he threw back a few too many beers in this one 

Well, and so does Noah 

What a world of boys looks like (this was the best one I got of 20)

 Of course I still had to decorate a little :)

The cake was hummingbird cake...it was TOO DIE FOR (recipe HERE)

He loved the icing, the cake ended up on the floor

The hat was a no go

Overall a great night.  I might just be won over on the small party thing.  

Happy BIrthday Eli!!!!!!!

Happy First Birthday to my smiley, into-everything, cuddly, dramatic little man :)

For a few weeks, there was a lot of sleeping...

Then some pouting.

There was a lot of crying.  A LOT.

And then somewhere in there, some of this started happening.

Soup

This is the best soup I have ever had.  Ever.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup