Family Photo Shoot

Year of Dates - April

We had some serious fun this month!

Mster initially wanted to go to a baseball game but after consideration decided that a day of cooking with Dad, uninterrupted, was a way better idea.

She has to have a towel over her shoulder like Dad. 

First course - Artichokes. They were a big hit with everybody. 

 And I do mean EVERYBODY. 

Is that Risotto? Why, yes, it is and it was so, so delicious. While we were eating our tasty bowls, we all went around the table to come up with a name for the recipe. It had procutto and celery and pistachios and other delightful additions. The decision making was pretty quick when Mster came up with MVP Risotto. We thought it a great idea since it was so delicious. She thought it was a great idea because the dish had Meat, Vegetables and Pistachios. We are still laughing that we got to have a lesson on what MVP really means.

Homemade rolls and steak, yes please!

There was peach pudding pie too but by that time our bellies were getting full and our bodies were getting tired and the camera was put aside to carry little ones to bed.

Lster and I had the perfect set up for our date. I had a free membership at a gym that had a Rock Climbing Wall. And we had some good times climbing. 

This is us, a little nervous, but definitely excited to try something new. 

Lster went first and after a few stumbles at the beginning he totally got the hang of it way fast and made it to the top over and over again. It didn't matter the difficulty of the wall, he tried and tried and tried and made it. Every. Single. Time. It was so great to see him try and not give up. I've even used that as a teaching moments this week when he's told me something is too hard. 

Kster never wants to be left out of the fun. So the boy who refusing to eat fish was determined to go eat Sushi with Dad since Lster did it the month before. We talked to him about it over and over again. Are you sure? Do you know what sushi is? He was DETERMINED! Cster even took him to Safeway on their way to the restaurant and showed him packaged Sushi and said. "this is what we are going to go eat. Do you still want to go?" Kster was adamant that he was going. So off they went to go eat some Sushi. Well, off they went for Cster to go eat some Sushi because once it was in front of him he wanted nothing to do with it.

He did eat deep fried shrimp heads. Go Figure.

And they had a trip to Sonic for him on the way home to play Wii Lego Star Wars (remember he did not want to be left out).

And new rule - no staying home and playing video games on your date. 

Storing Dry Food - Can I think of a more boring title?

I cook and bake a lot. We, therefore, go through a lot of dry goods. I had to find a way to store my pounds and pounds of dry goodness.

So, here's what I do...

What I Store?
Wheat
Rice
Sugar
Quick Oats
Rolled Oats
Black Beans

How I store it?

1. I buy dry goods in bulk. For the most part I buy them here. There are locations in most major cities and anyone can walk in and buy stuff. Usually their hours are way shorter than a regular store so I would call first. They come in mega bags. This is an oats bag.

2. I get buckets from a bakery department of my grocery store (In my area Ive found only King Soopers/Krogers will give you their buckets) They are going to be covered in shortening laden frosting so you'll have to do some major cleaning and drying out before you start to store). Another option is to buy buckets and lids (they usually are stored separately) from a hardware store like Home Depot. Just make sure their buckets are food grade. When I researched it a few years back I think Home Depots were but Lowe's weren't. But I would do your own checking because things can change quickly with different suppliers and you don't want to mess around with food safety. That's why I like the bakery buckets. They already had food in them and they are free. It is some work to clean them out for the first time but once they are clean you can reuse and refill to your hearts content.

3. Label. Nothing more frustrating than opening up 5 buckets just to find some sugar.

4. Cook and Bake away knowing you will always have the staples.

Pinning that works

Here is my second installment of Pinterests that Work. If you want to see my first post on Pinterest, go here.


Easy Pad Thai

We love this recipe. Well everybody but Mster. But 4 out of 5 is not bad for our house. I double the recipe and follow the directions exactly.




Korean Beef

My family loved this the first time we ate it and haven't loved it since. I'm not sure if I'm doing something different but I've heard other families really like this one too so I thought I would add it to the list.





Chicken Avocado Salad

This is really really yummy. Especially for a girl who does not like mayo. I have the amount of avocado. Delicious.





Southwestern Quinoa Salad

I make this over and over and over again. I haven't introduced it to the kids yet and I've changed up the dressing a little bit.

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp of lime juice
1/2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste.




Steel Cut Oats in 5 minutes

I can't tell you how much I love this oatmeal. Its so easy and so gooood and takes so little time.
I make the oatmeal according to directions and then put it right in the fridge. (I read the comments and wasn't ready to die over a bowl of oatmeal). But I love the texture. Its a little chewy, which I like, I mean love. I don't feel like I'm missing out at all.

I usually add some cinnamon and raisins or defrosted frozen blueberries or even fresh berries with a dash of cinnamon. I do like cinnamon and oatmeal.

I cook it for 2 min in the mason jar (lid off) and dump in a bowl to stir in my add ins. My older 2 kids love them too and they are great quick breakfast before school.




French Toast Bake

This is the poster picture for unhealthy breakfast. I've made it twice for special occasions in our house. It really is very very easy.

Bring on the 5 star food

Nikster has been fighting eating lately. Oftentimes she'll just yell at you while sitting in her chair. I know she's hungry but she won't eat.

Well last night we hit the jackpot of eating! Mster and Cster had their date (more info to come) and they cooked up a storm in the kitchen much to the delight of our baby foodie. She LOVED artichokes. She grabbed at the leaves and munched and munched away. We would take them away and she would lunge for the new leaf. The other surprise success was risotto. I've never seen a baby shovel food into her mouth so fast.

Guess I need to start expanding my cooking repertoire.

Sleepy

A few nights ago Kster declared in a defeated voice, "my body is sleepy."

I agree Kster. I'm working on making it not so sleepy but my body is pretty sleepy too.

Year of Dates - March

Can I just say I love this Christmas present idea. Its been so awesome to spend time with the kids and see their anticipation and excitement.

Mster and I kicked of our weekend of dates by heading to the House of Bounce. She saw how much fun Kster and I had and she decided to try it out.

Mster was determined to do EVERYTHING she could possibly do there. We spend a lot of time on this slide. What the picture doesn't show is that this is a very very tall slide we probably did it over a dozen times.  Kster was too scared to try it out so I didn't have to climb the crazy steps but I did it and loved it.

This is a velcro sticky wall. Its not so sticky. But she still loved jumping and sticking and slowly peeling off.

Here is us at the bottom of the really big slide.

I guess even the 8 yr old needed a little break. She headed over to where all the toys for sale were to check them out but got stung by a stealth wasp. This is her texting Cster to tell him all about the pain and anguish.

Kster and I headed out the next day to go play some Glogolf. Kster's done it before but couldn't remember a thing. He was a little peeved that we weren't going to the bounce house (especially when he saw the pictures of Mster the night before) but as soon as we got there he was in golfing heaven.

He proudly posed for this shot. He was still going at this point. We were on our second round of 18 holes.

Kster was most excited about checking out the hole before hitting the ball to make sure it was a real hole and not a fake one that would take his ball to some other location.

After Glogolf we headed to the Food Court and got Kster one of his favorite things in the whole world. !!!!TREATS!!!!

After we headed home, Cster and Lster headed of to Chuck E. Cheeses to play some arcade games. They were a little disappointed in the lack of actual video games but Lster seemed over the moon excited by the obtaining of tickets and the prizes to be found. I love that he came home and shared all his candy prizes with his brother and sister. 

Lster and Cster then headed off for some sushi. Lster loves to eat fish and Cster is always looking to eat sushi so it seemed a match made in date heaven. Other than the fact that Lster hates avocado he downed a ton of sushi.

Hawaiian Man

Last night Kster asked for the Hawaiian Man son when we were putting him to bed. Both Cster and I looked puzzled at each other.

Then Kster elaborated. "You know Hawaiian man built his house on a rock"

Ohhhhhh...that Hawaiian man.

Babies are Cute

And if one is going to spend some time dumping a month of stuff into blog posts, one must definitely reserve a blog post for cute babies.

Preschool

This is Kster on his first day of preschool. He is still so young for anything formal but so desperate to go to school like his big brother and sister so when a friend suggested we do a little coop, Kster and I jumped at the idea.

He LOVES it! He LOVES LOVES LOVES it! Every day he asks me if he has school. He is so excited.

And, dude, look at those curls.

Lettuce Wraps

This is one of my family's favorite meal. Lettuce Wraps! I made a ton of it this week. I was pretty sure we would have leftovers. In the end, Lster decided to eat half of it (7 lettuce wraps) and Cster left the table hungry. I guess the boys eating us out of house and home has begun.

Here is the recipe. I got it off the web over a year ago and don't know the source. I've tweaked it a bit too.

PF Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps

3 tablespoons oil

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup water chestnut (I don't always add this)

²⁄₃; cup mushroom (I don't add this)

Any amount of cut up vegetables (ie: carrots, celery, bell peppers)

3 tablespoons chopped onions

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Cooked rice

iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce

¼ cup sugar

½ cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¹⁄₈; teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon hot mustard (I actually use french's regular)

2 teaspoons water

1 -2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

½ teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions:

Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done. Remove chicken from the pan and cool. (I cut up the chicken and just cook it cut up as I never think ahead to make the chicken and cool it before needing it for dinner) Keep oil in the pan, keep hot. As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas as well as all your other vegetables.

Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl. When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are cooking. With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups". I add cooked rice to the mix at the end to make it more filling and more of a meal than an appetizer. Top with "Special Sauce". You won’t need all the sauce.

Somebody loves Soccer Buddies

Thusday was Ksters last day of Soccer Buddies. Coach Bosco has been his coach since his first day many years ago. He loves loves soccer and loves loves his coach.

We are taking a break again this year as the older ones have started city soccer and there is only so much soccer this mom can chauffeur. 

Valentine's Envelopes

I organized Lster's Valentine's Party for his Kindergarten Class. This is what I cam up with for containers to put their Valentines. I got the general idea from this crazy thing called google search. 

Year of Dates - February

We definitely had our dates in February but just took a little time getting the pictures.

Mster and Cster went out to dinner to Red Robins and then went to the movies. She LOVED Wreck it Ralph. Apparently, the toilet humor is just enough to make a 8 yr old squeal with delight.

Kster and Cster had a marathon date. Kster was determined to play Wii Lego Star Wars that it took a lot of  convincing to have him change his mind. The two started out at an arcade type place, moved on to Five Guys and then headed to Grandma and Grandpas for a sleepover. The highlight of the whole date, I'm sure, is that Kster got to ride in his Dad's car. This is the most coveted activity in the family and I think if Cster offered to drive the kids around for an hour they would think that is the Awesomest. Idea. Ever!

LSter and I took off to go bowling. The games go surprisingly fast when there are just 2 people in a lane so after 2 games we moved to the little arcade area and did a little DDR, air hockey and duck punching.

Recovering on a Snow Day

I sort of had to laugh because yesterday I spent quite a bit of time in the dentist chair and afterwards the assistant sat me down to tell me how horrible I would feel in recovery. She ended her long list of pain aids with, "wait. You don't have to go to work tomorrow, do you?" When I said no she gave me the biggest look of relief. I laughed to myself. Taking care of 4 children isn't work, right?

And then...

Finally. After waiting a very long time we got a legitimate snow day today.

So definitely not working today.

That being said, we are having a great day. Kids are still happy. Minimal fighting. Rooms are being cleaned. Snow cream and chocolate cake in a mug (recipes in a later post).

Not too bad of a recovery day.

Oh...and I've been cooking so new food posts coming soon. Maybe even today. :)

The Church Cycle of a 3yr Old

Kster really likes me. I mean, can you blame him? I'm awesome. But, oftentimes this means that he has this ultimate fear that he won't get to hang out with my awesomeness at all moments of his waking exsistence.  And Kster likes to know that we are close enough at all times that he can hug me within a moments desire.

Kster loves church. He loves his class. He especially loves that he's a big boy now and gets to go with big kids and his brother. But there is that darn factor that moms don't get to go to class with their kids.  Mom's get grown up classes. And so starting on Saturday night Kster decides he does not like church.  Last night he told he me "I can't go to church. Remember, I'm sick!" This church defiance will continue until 5 minutes into the kid part of church. When I pick him up from class he is all smiles and giggles. He's so happy. He shows me his artwork. He waves goodbye to his teacher, who previously he refused to even look at because if he doesn't see her maybe class is just all a figment of our imagination. And he proclaims, "I had FUN".

He will continue to tell everybody he sees for the rest of the week all about his class. He will tell them he is a big boy and goes to big boy class. He will smile and look so proud and then Saturday night will roll around again and the cycle will continue.