January 2014 – Sprinkles in my Lunchbox

Month: January 2014

30
Jan
2014

Just call me butter, baby…

…’cause I’m on a roll!

Or a croissant…

Doesn’t that look incredible? My Mom is a master baker. She’ll deny it, but she is. And she made these. AND the Chocolate Pear Jam (am I the only one that thinks of Pearl Jam when I see ‘pear jam’? I love 90’s grunge, what can I say!) next to it. I know. I’m wicked blessed (for many reasons other than the buttery pastry and jam).

It’s good to be back in some routine (as you might recall I’m a fan of), although now my Husband is sick. Seriously. I thought we were done with this! I just hope the cycle ends with him. Once and for all. Seriously. Go away, Sickness!

Despite that, we’ve been doing great at focusing on the Simple Things.

We had a Game Night, where we played Disney Candyland. It is always a fun game, but was made more special with popcorn. Bigs goes ape poop for popcorn. He always has.

It was pretty fun except Smalls kept sweeping his hand through all the player pieces and cards. And the popcorn. 18 month olds aren’t good at playing games.

We had an Art Night, where we got out this huge pad and everyone drew on it. It was great. We love doing that.

I cannot even handle how much I love Bigs’ happy face drawings (bottom right, middle of page). He’s just the coolest. Literally The Coolest.

Know what else is cool? Pretzels. Homemade pretzels. I made some. Sure they ended up looking like chicken wings. But chicken wings are cool too, right?

The dough was really easy to make and came together well.

It was sticky though. And that didn’t make for very clean pretzel forming. But that’s okay. It’s not like they ever had the destiny to LOOK good. They were supposed to be like pretzel nuggets but since the dough was too sticky for me (and I had two crazy boys running amok), I just sort of cut it and some had tails and looked like sea monkeys and some were cute and others were wonky. And I didn’t score any but one (the one that made me make the decision not to score the rest). They went into their baking soda hot tub and floated to the top.

I piled those suckers up and added an egg wash. Okay, not an egg wash, but just a beaten egg (before EGG above, after egg below). Oops. They stunk a bit when baking.

They baked up beautifully though, and the eggy smell went away. I brushed melted butter on them after they were done baking (before butter above, after butter below).

They were just like “real” soft pretzels! Crunchy(ish) outside, delicious and chewy inside.

They look like those Snyder’s Honey Mustard pretzels here. They aren’t.

Some I tossed with Kosher salt.

Don’t they look like the best ever chicken wings? Well, they’re not.

The other half of them I added cinnamon sugar to.

That was more of a hit. But I like pretzels in any flavor.

Look at all those glistening, delicious pretzel nuggets.

I also made some delicious roasted sweet potatoes for dinner. I had both white and orange sweet potatoes (The black ones appear to be purple sweet potatoes, but they’re not. They burned. But I did that ON PURPOSE because my husband loves burned stuff. Works for me.).

I had about a million sweet potatoes that I needed to use (they were sprouting). I made mashed sweet potatoes the night before.

I served those with sausages and fruit.

And lastly, to round out this very wonky post, today was Fireman day at Bigs’ school.

Here is his cool lunch. It’s a PB&J (duh), with “F I R E D E P T” stamped on it and red, orange, and yellow outlining to represent fire. I made a little construction paper fire for him with directions on it, saying, “Put this fire out with your pretzel “hoses””. I also gave him a few more red tortilla chips. And lastly, he had cherry yogurt raisins, orange yogurt raisins, and some dried pineapples and bananas (all keeping with my red, orange, and yellow theme).

And naturally I had to send him in matching clothes. It’s how I [stop, drop, and] roll.

I can’t help myself. It’s some sort of a sickness.

I hope you all have had a great Thursday. It’s one step closer to Friday – woohoo!

Remember…stop, drop, and roll!

Kristin

28
Jan
2014

Parenting, Police, and Biscuits

categories: Dinner, Kid Food, Lunchbox

I feel as though I am constantly messing up as a parent. It’s a really hard (but so very blessed) job. I find myself changing my tactics all the time, after learning or reading something about studies showing how harmful that particular tactic is. It’s exhausting. And I’m sure it is for Bigs and Smalls too. One day Mommy acts like this, the next day, a different Mommy. You’d (I’d) think that I’d have it “down pat” by now, but the truth is, I don’t. I don’t know what I’m doing. Probably in life either. But, I love that life (and my boys) give me second, third, fourth, etc. chances. Even if I have a particularly horrible “Mommy Day”, the next day is a new day, a clean(er) slate, of sorts. I was going to write mostly about biscuits and meatloaf today, but I read another article on “correct” parenting behavior this morning and how the antithesis of that negatively affects them. It’s so much pressure. And there are so many articles. I am actually sitting here feeling bad for myself and for them. But there’s hope. There’s ALWAYS hope.

I think I’d like to try a more “Back to Basics” approach, since I literally cannot possibly keep up with all that I am supposed to do. The Bible says in Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Surely that is enough to get me ‘started’ on this whole parenting thing (that which does NOT come with an instruction manual), right? Here are some other verses which are helping me.

Psalms 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Sure, my kids are supposed to obey me. But they also see my reactions and imitate. That’s something I need to constantly work on.

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

I am taking this to be directed at ME, as well, not just “Fathers”.

This isn’t saying that we shouldn’t discipline our children:

Proverbs 19:18 Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

The Bible says, in fact, that we SHOULD discipline. I think it’s just how we go about it.

Proverbs 29:17 Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

My job as a parent to Bigs and Smalls is to provide structure, discipline, my love, kindness (and a million other things). I need to bring them up as God wants and build up their confidence in this world.

[CAVEAT: I hope you take this as I intended – as a Biblical guide that can be a starting point. I am (quite, humbly and obviously) not a perfect parent (SO far from it) and am learning everyday.]

[CAVEAT II: I was discussing this with my husband and he was telling me that parenting does not come with an instruction book (as I mentioned and you all for sure know) and that all these articles cannot tell us exactly how to parent. We just change the things we want to change. Ahhh so simple – men see things so very differently!]

You know what else I don’t do so great (even though I HAD instructions)? Gluten free, dairy free biscuits. Or “hardtack”, as I am now calling them.

I thought I’d “whip” up a batch for us for dinner last night. The dough wasn’t so bad.

I did like that I could over-mix the dough without the fear of making it tough.

Oh, I SHOULD have had the fear of tough biscuits, however.

Those suckers came out like baptism wafers. The hard kind. Luckily, my husband sort of likes those.

Don’t let this picture fool you – they were still white as snow. And hard as rocks.

But so very strangely addictive. Especially with butter and honey.

Look at that height (LOL)!!

Seriously. Weirdest things ever. I had to make them dairy free as well (the recipe was just GF) so I am not sure if THAT is where things went wrong? Who knows. Did I have ALL the proper ingredients? No. But whatever!! I’m the Queen of Improvisation and Replacements!

Here’s the REAL recipe, if you are interested:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/03/gluten-free-buttermilk-biscuits-recipe.html

(I used almond milk and vegan butter and coconut oil since I, naturally, ran out of vegan butter.)

Some adjectives I heard around the dinner table: hard, white, chewy

By the by, they get harder. I went for one this morning and almost broke a toof.

I served it with some gluten-free (usually I use breadcrumbs and remembered too late that I had cornflakes I could have used instead) meatloaf. I used about a pound of organic, grassfed ground beef to which I added fresh parsley, dill, and rosemary (from my neighbor’s garden), and a Mrs. Dash seasoning packet. I made the beans and carrots I always make. I also served it with sliced pears, cranberries and candied nuts.

And we’ve really made an effort to get back to the Simple Life these past few days.

The kids plucked our very own (SOUR) tangerines off of our tree.

We tasted those sour little boogers.

And my husband grilled out while the boys and our dog pretended to wash the pool deck.

It really is the simple things.

Also, today is Police Day in Bigs’ class!

I cut out “P O L I C E” on a piece of bread and made a PB&J (always) on that bread. I used my Food Writer to make a “reds and blues” police light boarder. I served red tortilla chips (sorry, I KNOW these have mega red dye in them!) and corn. And for dessert, I picked the red and blue Smarties out of the little package I’d frozen since Halloween and some peppermint yogurt covered raisins. On the baggie, I wrote, “Police Lights Dessert – Eat last or go to jail!!”. I hope he likes this lunch! 🙂 It was a fun one to make.

Remember that we are never too old to learn, and there is always hope – to grow, to change, to make things better.

Hope you eat your healthy food first today!

Kristin

25
Jan
2014

A Simple Kind of Life

categories: Dessert

It is SO easy to get caught up in the not-so-simple ways of the world. I fall victim to it, myself. I’ve only had a “smart phone” for maybe a year and a half. It’s been life-changing. In good and bad ways. I can easily and quickly snap pictures of my beautiful children that my previous phones would not allow me to do (so easily). But I can also find myself with my nose in my phone, missing out on the very moments for which I should be emotionally (not just physically) present. I vow to change this. I want my boys to remember me present. And I WANT to be with them.

Although it should be a “no, duh!!” (I’m a 90’s kid, what!), I’d love to make it a priority to have fibers from The Simple Life woven into every day. We have a very busy life, but if I can find a way to slow down, even if for a minute, and show my boys the simple pleasures in life, I feel we can live so much more of an enriched life.

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life. ” – John Burroughs

A bike ride, playing on the playground, drawing with sidewalk chalk, making muffins with Mommy, scavenger hunts, gardening with Daddy (Mommy has a brown thumb), trips to the library. I need to slow down. For my kids’ sake.

The other night, we went to our neighbor’s house to chat. We adore these neighbors. They were our first friends in this neighborhood and have remained our best of the bunch. They are older than us (which we love) and treat us like family. And the boys adore them. As do we. They have a beautiful and magical yard (they spend lots of time outside and cultivating their it). And they have grapefruit trees and herbs. It’s awesome. The boys enjoy learning about all of those things.

Smalls is holding a grapefruit and running in this picture.

Here is Bigs picking a grapefruit.

I love living in a neighborhood where citrus trees grow rampant.

The boys love going in their bushes and planters.

Look at these fantastic herbs they have. Aren’t they lush and gorgeous?

I only wish my own backyard looked like this!

In addition to taking home grapefruits, I took home a bundle of fresh “neighbor” herbs: two kinds of mint, chives, parsley, rosemary, and dill. Just lovely.

Ahhh, the simple things.

25 “Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?” – Jeremiah 2:25 (The Message)

Speaking of which, since it IS the weekend, I made a simple dessert for you (for me).

Chocolate Devil Bars

Makes 16 bars (or less, depending on how much you eat in one sitting)

Adapted from:

http://www.ilovemydisorganizedlife.com/2013/11/peanut-butter-gooey-bars-25-days-of/

1 C peanut butter (or 3/4 C peanut butter + 1/4 C Biscoff, as I did)
1/2 C butter, melted
2 eggs
1 package Devil’s Food cake mix
1 C semi sweet chocolate chips
1 13ish oz can of dulce de leche

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the first four ingredients in a bowl.
Press half of the mix in a lightly greased 8×8 baking dish.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Layer the chocolate chips, followed by the dulce de leche (I put spoonfuls down).
Pat down the remaining cake mix.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Once cooled, cut into squares. It came out gooey for me. Which I love.

It was tasty. And quite rich.

I froze some to give to my Mom and Dad and also sent some across the street to our lovely neighbors.

I hope YOU enjoy them if you make them! As you can see (if you click the link to the original recipe), I made changes to almost every main ingredient, so this recipe is quite customizable to both your tastes and what you have on hand (as it turned out for me).

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

The grass certainly isn’t always greener on the other side. Enjoying what God’s given us and opening our eyes to what we actually have is life-changing. In the best way.

Here’s a great post (Daily Hope) by Rick Warren about the Bible’s take on slowing down and enjoying life.

http://purposedriven.com/blogs/dailyhope/index.html?contentid=4971

Here’s to doing just that – slowing down, putting technology aside (for the moments that count, the moments WITH our children), and enjoying this beautiful life God’s gifted us.

Blessings,

Kristin

24
Jan
2014

Hammy Time!

categories: Dinner

What a week. Seriously. I know I say that all the time, but what a week. Both boys had doctor’s follow up appointments (both better – yay!), both boys had a little kid gym class (they go each week on different days), both boys had a make up little kid gym class (on different days), Bigs had school and one on of those days, I worked in his classroom. And also Smalls got reinfected with pink eye and had another fever night (booooo). But he’s better again. But seriously. Whaaaaat? Why does this keep happening?!

I absolutely love working in Bigs’ classroom. The parents of the kids switch off days, so that every day has a helper parent. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get to know our kids’ teacher, classroom and procedures and learning itself, and classmates better. I absolutely adore Bigs’ teacher and classmates. He’s expressed that he never wants another teacher again. Just the one he has. 🙂

I showed up to class rocking my donuts. You just might recall how much my Bigs and I love donuts. It’s sort of a thing for us.

I put on my donut sweatshirt and earrings. And then I remembered that I had a donut necklace.

So I put that on, too. Because…you can’t just wear SOME of your donut stuff. Sure I looked like Flava Flav a bit. And maybe also a clown. But you know what? The kids (and adults) thought it was a hoot. And I did too. Love donuts. And someday, probably not too far off in the future, my Bigs will be (and I hope he isn’t!!) mortified when I show up like this. I gotta capitalize on him loving my wackiness now.

My feet matched. I try to do that.

It was a blast of a day, hanging out with my big buddy.

So, back when I’d posted about this sweatshirt, I sort of mentioned that it was a Christmas gift to myself and that my husband didn’t know it yet. I’d already purchased it and was going to give it to him to give to me. But sweet Husband took it upon himself to get it for me before knowing I’d already done the dirty work. It was quite a hubbub to return it. So I EXTRA appreciate it!

Besides the boys not taking naps yesterday, which by all scale-of-tiredness-accounts they should have (and I needed one!), it was a lovely day.

I also made a ham dinner. For some odd (and I DO think it’s odd), Bigs’ favorite meat is ham. I feel like kids Bigs’ age (almost 4) would rather chicken. But I’m glad he likes it! Especially because he’s having it for dinner again tonight. 🙂

I glazed it with cherry preserves. I also made a cheesy hash brown casserole.

This is from the copycat recipe for Cracker Barrel. Do you have those near where YOU live? If not, just get off on the next interstate exit and go immediately. That place is so good. For this recipe, it calls for a cream of soup and sour cream. I didn’t have enough sour cream but I DID have a tub of ricotta cheese. I threw that in, hoping it would help make up for my lacking ingredient amounts. It turned out great, you couldn’t even tell.

I also made beans.

I sautéed a mix of carrots, green beans, and wax beans in coconut oil with whatever seasoning feels right (lemon pepper this time) and freshly grated garlic. I add dried cranberries when it’s almost done. This time, I burned the lot, but it still tasted good. And, oddly enough (my life must be “odd” because I find myself saying this a lot!), this was the only thing Smalls ate last night. He literally turned down cheesy potatoes and frozen yogurt (I froze actual yogurt for the boys to have for dessert) for beans. That kid is something. But I’m glad that if he’s eating anything, it’s beans.

It was yummy.

And like I said, we’re having it again. I love leftovers.

Just yes.

After such a long few weeks of sickness and not really having the energy to cook, it was really nice to have a homey, comforting meal to eat.

And I love knowing that no matter what happens today, we’ll get that same homey, comforting meal again. And I don’t have to even cook it again.

Have a wonderfully blessed Friday (seriously TGIF!!)

Kristin

23
Jan
2014

The Whole Tooth

categories: Kid Food, Lunchbox, Snacks

I’ve had a post I’ve been meaning to get to, but…life. You know. My little one got sick again. It’s so hard. Waaaah!

Anyways, Bigs learned about Doctors (how appropriate) and Dentists this week in school. Obviously I had to come up with some themed lunches.

Here is the Doctor Themed:

That one was a little tough for me. I made a heart shaped [box…tee hee, die hard Nirvana fan!] PB&J and sprayed it red with food-safe spray and wrote “Doc” on it with my Food Writers. You know…like a heart. I think kids Bigs age think our hearts are actually heart shaped…didn’t you? Only me? 🙂 I added a chocolate chip cookie, pretzel sticks, and an applesauce squeezy fruit. And for snack…an apple. And raisins. But I wrote on the bag, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Here is the Dentist themed lunch:

That one was easier! I made another heart shaped (don’t make me sing you that song, because I will!) PB&J and drew lips and teeth on them. So it’s like a mouth, in case you can’t tell. I might have to explain this one to Bigs. Anywho. He has gold teeth (corn) and “tooth” picks. I have those. I do. Aren’t they cute? I stuck them in a bunch of 7 layer bars I made as a gift for my dentist. The irony wasn’t lost on him that I was giving him sweets. I added an applesauce squeezy fruit and for dessert, I made a mouth out of apple slices, peanut butter and a few marshmallows (for teeth).

Hope you all are having a wonderful week. It’s been…a week here. And I know some of my friends are having a tough time. So. Prayers. All around. For you, for your families and us.

In Christ,

Kristin

21
Jan
2014

He had a dream…

categories: Kid Food, Lunchbox

You know that Destiny’s Child song, “I’m a Survivor”? That’s my theme song. For only right now. Not any time ever other than that. Because I’m not into Destiny’s Child. Not my thing. I’m more of a 90’s grunge sort of girl. But I’ll dance to just about anything. Anywho. So my family made it through The Great Illness of 2014. Mostly unscathed. Only lots of doctor and hospital bills to contend with. It’s okay. That’s life. In addition to both my boys being sick, I ended up having a double ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. I am sad to say I now know what my babies go through when they have ear infections. AWFUL. I didn’t even notice at first, chalking up all pain to sinus pressure, but dang, it was painful. Throbbing, burning, dull-but-not-so-dull aches in both ears. Ouchie.

Praise God we are better.

During the not-feeling-so-good phase for Smalls, he developed a new…thing. When he’s upset, which has obviously been a lot, he throws himself on the ground. Just right there. Wherever he is. Have you ever seen those fainting goats? It’s JUST like that. Goat running, goat playing, goat fainting. Smalls running, Smalls playing, and boom. Smalls on the ground, prone, screaming.

It’s really bizarre. I am sure (as I’ve seen it a thousand times over with other kids) that this is a normal behavior to begin around 18 or so months (heading towards The Terrible Twos), however I have never had that experience before. Bigs showed his tantrums in other ways. I am not even sure what to do. Do I let him cry it out on the sidewalk in front of our neighbors (I didn’t let him play in the street – I’m an AWFUL Mommy) or do I pick him up and have him arch his back out of my arms? Not sure. Still working on this one.

He even does it in his stroller. It’s quite a sight to behold.

This particular incident occurred while I was at the doctor’s office for myself. Okay, CVS Minute Clinic. I’m sorry, I like to shop while I wait!!

What a spirited kid!

Anyways. I’m sure that even though The Sickness has left, that behavior is here to stay.

He’s still adorable though.

I meannnnn, how cute is he standing on a chair to look outside, holding his Koko (his little lovey he is rarely without) and a Cheerio stuck to his bum?

We are almost done with breathing treatments. I am weaning them off, per doctor’s orders. So happy to be almost done with these! I love how my Smalls clings to me when he’s worried. Look at those sweet baby fingers (yes they are pinching my um…chest – but I’ll take clinging in any fashion).

I had the rare opportunity earlier this week to spend a few hours alone with my Bigs. I took him on a donut date (our favorite).

I’d say he loved it. I felt a bit guilty about eating my donut but it WAS on a holiday, which is still a weekend, technically.

Which brings me to my next thing. I made Bigs a Martin Luther King Jr themed lunch. He was to be home with my husband during lunch time after our donut and kid gym date and since we were getting a new fridge installed (wherein the delivery guys almost burned our house down by letting a new fridge door fall and land on our stove turning it on), I thought I’d make his lunch earlier so Hubs wouldn’t have to worry. Is that even a true, technical, grammatically correct sentence? Whatever. Anyways. Here’s his lunch.

I made a dove shaped PB&J, and PB&J letters spelling “MLK JR” and “PEACE”. I gave him some pretzel sticks, dried cranberries, yogurt covered raisins, and a squeezy fruit. He loved it and he learned a lot about MLK Jr. I gave him the whole run down. I adore how puzzled he was when I told him about the strides that MLK Jr made in African American history. I love that to Bigs, his friends are his friends. People are people. Our insides are the same. As it should be.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Oh! And by the by, I got my sesame balls this past weekend. I needed them. It had been a while.

Aren’t they cute?

Be blessed

Kristin

16
Jan
2014

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

categories: Kid Food

Big old fat sigh. This week (since last Thursday) has just been horrendous. My itty bitty is finally starting to feel better, but my Bigs started with it. Luckily, he had lower fevers, but he still requires nebulizing treatments two times a day.

This brings the total to FIVE nebulizing treatments a day that I am administering. It’s exhausting. Especially because I never know if the boys are going to [pathetically] accept the treatment or fight it tooth and nail.

There is something just so pitiful about seeing your child with a little breathing mask on.

Even though I’m doing it so many times a day, it still makes me sad. Even though I know it helps.

The pink eye eye drops have been awful with Bigs. Smalls took them like a champ, but it takes over an hour of pleading and different tactics to get them into Bigs’ eyes. As it stands today, he got sugar-free froyo as a treat for finally getting them in. I’ll do whatever it takes.

On top of all that, I’ve come down with what might be the adult version of all of this (a really nasty cold, no fever). It’s horrible. I don’t ever know how I get through a day of parenting when I’m sick, but add two sick boys who become quite clingy, and it becomes a bit of a mess.

This whole being in the doctor’s office on Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday has, for me, created an enormous amount of laundry. I have this germ complex that I am not ashamed of. I feel once an outfit has been in the doctor’s office, it is filled with germs. Am I the only one? It’s okay if I am.

I should buy stock in Lysol and cleaning wipes and “hanitizer”, as Bigs calls it.

But God is good. And I know this will be over [someday]. And at least it isn’t worse! It could always be!

Throughout this whole process, I’ve not been eating a ton. Part of being sick and being sick over one’s children being sick. You’d think I’ve have lost a ton of weight. But no. It’s like my body is keeping my old “dessert” weight as a means of providing warmth against the bitter winter cold and also as a way of feeding itself.

Oh well. Good thing I ate so much before my diet started. Otherwise, I’d be a waif! HA!

Anywho. At least Smalls is starting to want to read and play again. For an entire week, he just wanted me to hold him (only standing up, at that).

And Bigs hasn’t lost his want to play at all, so I am grateful.

He put Bullseye, Woody, and Jesse (from Toy Story) on his record player and turned it on, watching them go round and round. He is so clever! He was doing this because there is a scene in Toy Story 2 that has the same thing happen.

I love Bigs’ creativity. He’s something special!

I made a special lunch for him too, since he had to miss school today.

I just used my Food Writers to draw a sun, some grass, a flower, and the words, “I <3 you” on his PB&J. He ADORED it. So didn’t expect a special lunch at home. Normally I just save those for school!

I took them to the mall today too. You know, for that promised froyo. Or “cup cup”, as Bigs has called ice cream since he was able to talk. So we call it “cup cup” in our home. Anyways, we also had cabin fever. It was necessary.

I got Bigs sugar-free froyo since I don’t need him staying up through nap. No way.

He asked for sprinkles, of course. And declared with delight, “Sprinkles in my lunchbox, right Mama?!”!

I got sugar-free vanilla for Smalls too. He only ate a wee bit. Poor kid. Doesn’t know froyo or cup cup will cure anything that ails him, yet.

I got a little bit of chocolate, cheesecake-flavored, and strawberry. I added some fruit, mochi and several different flavors of boba balls. Yum. I know this isn’t on my new diet (dessert only on weekends) but I feel some sense of deserving. And plus, if I am on Bigs’ schedule, his “Friday” is on Thursday, and that’s today! And Friday starts my weekend, so basically it’s the weekend already and I haven’t broken any rules. So there.

Bigs sat in the back of my ~~limo~~ double stroller and ate away.

Smalls played with some toys at the bookstore. But seriously. Look at that hair. Static central!

Both boys seem to be getting better, as it stands now. I can only pray that tomorrow will be even better. Lord? Please??

Oh, and also an aside (because I’m good at those)! I have learned a few things while at CVS several times in the last week. The boys and I love looking around the store while we wait for our prescriptions (we’ve had a lot of those as of late). Besides all the neat stuff they always have, their seasonal stuff is so much fun. And I’ve learned that it is my favorite place to buy nail polish. As much as I love changing my toe nail polish color (and especially matching it to holidays and important outfits), I need a decent but CHEAP polish. CVS has a line that is only $1.99 each. While that’s more than the $0.99 (obvi) cheap line at Target, it seems to be better quality. I’ve also learned that CVS’ imitation perfume line is almost (if not identical) to the real deal perfume. I meannnn, why pay $80 for a bottle, when you can pay only $9.99 for something that you probably couldn’t tell the difference with your eyes shut! NEAT! So exciting. Seriously.

Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful night and keep praying for my family’s health?

THANK YOU!

Kristin

14
Jan
2014

Whale, hello there!

categories: Kid Food, Lunchbox

Whale, whale, whale. What do we have here?

Today I did a whale themed preschool lunch for Bigs. For no reason other than whales are cute and I found whale shaped cheddar crackers at Target in the dollar section (score).

I did a whale shaped PB&J with two little bubble shaped PB&J (all from the same sandwich). I used my Food Writers to draw on some details. I also added the whale shaped cheddar crackers, a gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate chip cookie and a cinnamon applesauce squeezy fruit. I think he’ll love it.

And since I don’t have a whale shirt for Bigs, I put him in the next best thing – a shark shirt. Oh how I love a theme!

Smalls seems to be making improvements with his health. We are almost at 24 hours of no fever (since last Thursday evening!!!!) and he’s wanting to eat a little bit more. The poor thing has only eaten about a small cup of applesauce, a piece of bread and his whole milk since feeling puny that Thursday night. I can’t wait for him to eat more and feel more energy and spunk, which is how he normally is.

Hopefully ours will start to get better.

Thank you for your prayers, they mean a lot, and I truly believe in the power of prayer.

God is so good.

Have a whaley great day,

Kristin

13
Jan
2014

Do you know the Muffin Man?

categories: Dessert, Dinner, Snacks

I happen to know him. He doesn’t live on Drury Lane, like the song says. He lives with me.

He’s a little boy, actually. It’s my son. He’s the muffin boy. Well, on Friday, anyways. This past week in school, Bigs’ class read If You Give a Moose a Muffin. I love that series. I still have the mouse one from when I was a little girl.

The kids made moosey muffin boxes. How cute is that?! So on Friday, we made those yummy little Jiffy muffins. I let Bigs do all the work.

He poured the mix into the bowl, poured the milk (that I measured) into the bowl and whisked those together with the egg that I cracked. He used my scoop to put the mix into a mini muffin tin. He did great!

Here’s his “thumbs” up (it’s his pointer finger). Cuteness.

So what if I overcooked the muffins. He’ll never really know.

We ate them for snack and read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie since we don’t have the moose book at home. It was a fun activity and Bigs was proud he made the muffins on his own. And I was proud too!

It was a yummy food day, that day, since I also made those healthy Snickerdoodle Pancakes again! I gave them to Smalls one at a time to hold and eat at his leisure.

And for lunch (for Hubs and I), I finally made that tropical(ish) cous cous salad I’d been wanting to try.

It was SO good! I couldn’t stop eating it and that was okay, since it was so healthy!

Would it have been better with fresh cilantro (versus dried)? Yes. Would it have been better with a super ripe and fleshy, golden mango? Yes. But we work with what we have, people! Well, I do. Because I never have all the ingredients on hand. Ooops.

It was REALLY tasty. Chock full of good grains, beans and mango.

I loosely based it on the recipe from here:

http://greenlitebites.com/2010/09/03/mango-black-bean-couscous-salad/

Like I said, I didn’t have fresh cilantro, my mango had almost seen better days and I didn’t even have chives or a hot pepper. I cubed my mango and tossed it in a teeny bit of brown sugar, just to macerate it a little bit. I think it helped it taste more ripe. I made enough cous cous for 3 servings (according to the box). While that was absorbing the water, I drained and rinsed the black beans and made the sauce. I used about 5 tablespoons of olive oil and some really good squirts of lemon juice (would love to have used a real fresh lemon, but you already know what I’m going to say…). I added salt and pepper, a little bit of garlic powder and I had a Weber’s Mango & Lime grill seasoning for fish that I put in there. It really lightened up the flavors. I then added quite a bit of dried cilantro. I whisked away and once the cous cous was ready, I mixed it all up together. I added cayenne pepper to mine. It was great!

And my husband only eats hot things (mostly) and this salad can be served warm, although it is abundantly better cold, in my very humble opinion.

I hope you try it!

By the way, thank you to those of you who have prayed for my baby son. We had to take him to the doctor’s office two more times since I’ve written and also today, we took him to the hospital for chest x-rays. They were looking for pneumonia, which they did not find. God is good! I just need my little spicy baby to get better and back to his spunky little self.

Keep praying?

Thank you!

In Christ,

Kristin

11
Jan
2014

More [brie] cheese with my whine? Please?

categories: Dessert, Snacks

Well. I had a different post ready to be shared, but you know how life is. It do what it wants. I mentioned in my last blog post that my baby son Smalls (okay, he’s 17 months, but will always be the baby of the family, plus he’s really tiny, so extra babyish…anywayssss) wasn’t feeling well. That puny feeling, unfortunately, continued for him through the night and weekend. We ended up having to take him into an after hours pediatric urgent care. His little fever turned into a respiratory thing that caused wheezing, shortness of breath and low oxygen levels, and continued higher fevers. After some nebulizing treatments, we went home with our tired, little, sick baby. The next morning he woke with what I knew was pink eye. Poor thing. We took him to his regular pediatrician and got him some medication for that and a steroid to help with his breathing. His horrible fevers seemed to give him a break tonight, for the first time in three days. We still have to give him breathing treatments at home (we have a nebulizer from when Bigs was little), but God is good. I know he’ll take care of our little sweetie.

So, sadly, that’s been the end of the week and the weekend (having to skip church tomorrow, but we can watch it online!). Keep my Smalls in your prayers?

Thank you.

In an effort to relax (and also reward myself for my SIX DAYS OF NO DESSERT!! <–why on Earth did I feel that deserved, not one, but TWO exclamation points? It’s so sad!) Anyways, after putting my boys in bed, I made what I currently believe is Life’s Perfect Food: Baked Brie Bites.

You may (or may not) recall that I had them at a Christmas party thrown by my friends. They are just divine.

Something about brie always calls my name. I could eat a whole wheel of it. The big size. There is something about the oozey, gooey way it melts, taking hostage everything in its path, like hot lava.

Something about the crunchy, delicate richness of the phyllo dough. Something about the tart dried cranberries.

Something about the crunchy, earthy walnuts. And then put that all together with a bit of brown sugar. Something MAGICAL happens. I’m NOT KIDDING!

Look at that bubbly, gooey, brown sugary cheeeeeese. Those crunchy walnuts!

I meaaannnn. Look at those now caramelized cranberries. I can’t even.

I plopped four (for the sake of my photo shoot – I really ate about 11) on my husband’s Grams’ china and had them with my finest bottle of Sav Blanc (HAHA my finest is Trader Joe’s).

This was a lovely reward to a long week.

Here is the recipe, if you need it. It’s SO simple and honestly, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/09/ile-de-france-cheese-baked-brie-bites.html

Enjoy and thank you for your prayers!

Kristin