Beautiful Biking

Sunday was such a beautiful day and I just had to get the family out in the beautiful weather! So we rented some bikes and went for a ride out at the park! It was really wonderful! Bunny loved riding the trials, and Pup loved riding on the big bike! I think we will do it again soon! Here are a few pictures that I carefully snapped while we were out!

 We parked our bikes for a few minutes to take a walk and we had fun looking at spring as it is coming in full bloom! It is always great to get out and be in nature!

I find that most of the time, the simple moments of our lives are the best, most beautiful ones! When we are out together, just us, there is often such peace and joy together. It makes me think alot about what we do do and what we should do. It seems that making sure that we take time to these simple things together bring us all closer and blesses our lives so much! So I think that this is something that I am learning through this lent! I hope you are all soaking up the spring sun too!

What we are eating!!!!

Well I am up to more cooking! Today I made some melted sandwiches that were really good for a quick meal! I made some bread using a Pillsbury french bread, and them I put some butter, cheese, and ham on them and baked them in the oven. Finally I topped them with cheese and broiled them! Yummy! I also sauteed some veggies and we had some grapes too!

Yesterday's meal was something more fancy! I made an amazing chicken and sugar snap peas in a cream sauce! Yum Yum Yum!!!! I will defiantly make this again soon! In fact it may be my standby company meal!

So that is what I have been cooking! In my effort to feed my family (and loose weight) I have tried to keep things more balanced and to make sure that there are more veggies! I think it is working! Thanks for popping by and Happy Cooking!



Happy St. Patricks Day!!!!!

Well last night I worked really hard last night and managed to pull together a bit of Irish fun for the family today! I decorated the table all up and everything was ready for the girls when they woke up! It was pretty simple with the right ideas from Pintrest and a bunch of stuff in my stash!  Here is what we did for the holiday!

The table had some white napkins, flowers with printables, green leaf balls from Pup's Princess Party, Pompoms, and a little leprechaun Bunny made a couple of years ago!

Here is a link to the printables I used for the circles (yes they were free!).

St. Patrick's Day Printables

I printed Subway art printable for the shelves

Printable are Here!

For lunch I tried this sandwich idea that I saw on...you guessed it.... Pintrest! I spread cream cheese on one side of the bread and topped that with lettuce. Then I used a small heart cookie cutter to make the shamrock! Bunny LOVED it. She ate two! Pup pulled the lettuce out and then ate it! ;) We are still working on eating all of our veggies! ;)

Cute huh? The link for these are here!

Dinner was a traditional corn beef brisket and boiled potatoes. I planned to have some carrots too, but I forgot to buy them! So I sauteed some zucchini and squash for an added veggie (I told the girls that they were gold! Neither of them bought it and they really didn't want to eat them). I also cut up some pears! Here are some pictures of out dinner that I remember to take!

For dessert, Bunny made a cake all on her own! Admittedly and I helped her measure out the oil, but she used the mixer and everything! She was so proud of herself! We made it green for obvious reasons and I put some chocolate ganche on the top! It was really great!

So that was out holiday fun! I hope that you all had a wonderful day too! St. Patrick was an amazing man, and I'm so happy to have such wonderful fun to celebrate his life! Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!!!!!



Food for the Family!!!!

As promised, I have taken pictures of the food that I made for dinner tonight! I made a vegetable pancake and lemon glazed chicken with whole wheat beard! It was amazingly yummy! Ok I thought so, the girls were less then impressed! They ate it though, so my quest to make them better eaters is working! I really liked this and it was pretty easy! Its amazing how much easier feeding people is when you think ahead! Here are a few pictures of our meal!

This is potatoes, carrots (the purple ones) and zucchini that was shredded and cooked flat like a pancake! They tasted alot like hash browns. The girls ate them with ketchup! Not super healthy, but at least they ate them! ;)

Lemon Glazed chicken has lemon chunks, green olives, and honey! I really wasn't sure about it, but it was really good!

I did not make the bread! I baked it from a frozen loaf! Sort of the same right? :)

Yesterday I made some wonderful ham and cheese sandwiches with a bubbly cheese sauce on top. They were pretty good. I also used the fresh cauliflower to make cauliflower au gratin! That was really good! I did use soy milk instead of regular milk because of the milk sensitive bellies here and because its healthier! I didnt however remember to take pictures of it! Tomorrow I am needing a quick meal, so I think I will make pasta and veggies like Anna suggest a couple of days ago!  I hope you are all having a wonderful week! Happy Cooking!



My cooking!

Well pride goeth before a fall as they say and well I fell! Yesterday you will remember that I said I was a good cook. Well today I thought I would try and make a special dessert to take to some friends house. So I found a lovely recipe for Madeleines, French butter cookies. They looked like they took a bit of work, but not too bad. I also planned to make a chocolate mousse. So I got started with all the things that needed to melted and cooled and at room temperature! I started with the cookies. I made them according to the recipe and go them put in the pans. But I forgot to fold in the butter!!!! Arghhhh! They were delicate and had alot of whipped egg in them. So I pulled them out of the oven (they were only in there a minute before I figured it out) and i quickly scooped all the batter into the bowl and added butter! Then back into the oven they went. I was not really sure that they would work out, and.....they didn't! They were flat-ish and stuck horribly to the pan! *sigh*.



So I gave up on them and decided that the mousse would be just fine!!! So I went to work whipping eggs, blending tofu (yes tofu, it was a healthy recipe and you cant tell a difference), and melting chocolate! It looked pretty and tasted pretty good. However, as I scooped it out of the mixing bowl into the glass serving bowl, I dropped the mixing bowl just right and it broke the serving bowl! We aren't talking chipping it, we're talking shattering it! Glass shards were everywhere! So needless to say I was an hour from leaving with no dessert!!!!! So I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and that worked out well, but I felt like crying a little bit! All the work and time wasted! Oh well, at least our friends loved the cookies!!!!



It wasn't all bad today though! We did try a new food today for lunch, omelets!!!! My girls suggested eating eggs and I ran with it! I want to try new foods whenever we can, even if that means I need to cook lunch! I cut up some ham, zucchini, and tomato's to put in it. I added some mozzarella and Parmesan cheese as well! It was yummy and the girls like it for the most part! The tomatoes were a no go, but they never are! The zucchini however was eaten and I was happy about that! So I think we are off to a good start!

I really like this finding new foods to eat! I am going to keep this going since it seems to be a success (minus the dessert today)! My girls have tried new food and I really want us to keep that going! I will post more pictures as I take them! Happy Cooking!



Cooking Challenge!!!!



Well I am going to share a little secret with all of you. I am TERRIBLE at making sure that we have a descent dinner! I wish I could say I have a beautiful healthy meal on the table each night, but I jut cant! Most days it a  miracle if I figure out what we are going to eat before 3pm! I know I know.....its not rocket science! So I am going to change this! I can cook! In fact it is something I am rather good at. I have recently read Bringing Up Bebe. This book has had a TON of controversy and yet the bits I read about it sounded great! It was! I really agreed with so much of what she had to say about parenting in France. I know that this isn't what everyone there does and maybe its not even what is accurately French, but I really didn't care! I wanted what she described about the kids behavior that she saw. There was alot of wisdom in this book about how kids learn to eat, how kids learn to experience their world, and about how they need a firm solid frame of guidance around their freedom! I was really surprised at what I was able to pull from this book and it has really made me think alot about things here  and how I do them. I want to be a better mom and this book really allowed me see a place to start! It showed me how to have authority, but to still allow my kids the freedoms they need to be the people that God wants them to be. This issue is something that I have struggled with for a long while. How do you maintain authority and yet allow for personal freedom? As a Montessori homeschooler, freedom is the corner stone of the method, yet with too much freedom our home falls apart in every area. This book talks about the cadre, the solid frame of expectations that children are expected to respect. These are rules that are unbendable and never change ( no hitting, meal times, tones of voice, etc) However, the children are allowed total freedom within this frame. They play and experience their world happily and safely with in the cadre. I love this! I love the idea of a set of rules and total freedom inside that frame! The french (according to the book) view discipline as education. They are educating, not punishing! It really gave me some good ways at looking parenting.
Another thing that I think really made me think in this book was about food! French and food is a love relationship! They love food....they love to eat, to cook, to talk about, and share it! I don't! But when the author talked about how they introduce their kids to all kind of food, even if they don't like it, it made me think! The government run childcare places have 4 course lunches for their kids, even the babies! They serve the kids leeks, veggies of all types, and meats that have been prepared alot of different ways! As I read this I realized that I don't think I have eaten a leek! This is part of everyday life for the kids there! They also are more interested in eating these new food, because they don't snack more then once a day! There are no baggies of cheerios, no grabbing a cheese stick, no bags of chips. They eat breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. So with this amazingly diverse menu and with no endless eating, they are healthy and love a lot of different foods! Here, like I said, I really don't cook as I should. So I am going to change this! I am going to think ahead, make good food, eat more veggies,  and to really try new things! So today the girls and I headed to the store. We bought all kinds of new thing that we never do. I bought herbs (fresh ones), rice vinegar, wine, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, sugar snap peas, and fresh bread! I also let Bunny pick out some thing she thought were cool! She wanted baby stir- fry corn, and purple carrots (I have never seen these so I will have to let you know how they turn out)! So we are going to experimenting and trying out some fun new food! I hope with alot more effort on my part and with some beautiful food, we can all learn to like new food and open ourselves up to new tastes! I plan to take some pictures of what I make and try to document what we eat and how it tastes! Maybe it will be good, maybe not! We will see, but we will eat!
Now for a shameless begging for ideas or recipes for some good food! If you have something that is really wonderful or something that you think should be wonderful, please leave a comment and tell me all about it! Maybe its a great way to cook veggies, maybe its a meat or fish, or maybe its just a dessert! ;) I am looking for recipes and would love to know what you love to eat! I hope to hear from you! Happy Cooking!

Pup's Princess Party!!!!

Well today was the big day  and everything turned out so well!!!!! Pup loved her princess party (even though she was a little tired by the end). Everyone had fun and everything turned out really pretty!!!! I must say I am pretty proud of of how it all turned out! It was simple, pretty, and purple....everything I was hoping to for! The little crowns and wands for the kiddos were a great hit and it was so much fun to fun to watch them all running around as princes and princesses! Pup loved it all! She tore through the gifts (as every 3 year old worth their salt will do), she blew out her candle, and played with everyone!!!!



 I simply can not believe that she is three years old! My baby is not a baby anymore, she is really a big girl! Part of me a sad, but most of me is so proud and happy of the bubbly, loving, and enthusiastic girl that she is! I love her spontaneous hugs and kisses! I love her ability to think that everyone and everything is the best ever! I love that she loves so totally and completely! I love her like crazy! So here are the pictures of my little Princess's big day!

Here is the kitchen area. It always seems like the headquarters of the house, so it deserves some special treament! I ususally go all out here! I really love how it turned out! the bunting and the giant moss covered 3 really make me smile! I love it!

The cake!

Here are some of the printables I made for the party! These little princesses are all over! I love how sweet they are and that they really make the theme in small little ways all over!

The living room. Here is where was do gifts and where alot of people sit to talk! I really love to make this room special too! The bunting was just perfect! It was just so pretty!

Here is our entryway was our princess center! Crowns, wands, and necklaces for the girls. Crowns and belts for the boys! Everyone was a prince or princess!

Here is our backroom (playroom)! This is always where the kids end up! I had our school tables put back there! One for a kitchen party, and one for coloring! The tepee um Royal Castle was all set up for play on one corner, and the other corner held a cozy reading area with a ton of princess books!

We also had a bunch of fun food!

It was a really great day! I had a ton of fun planning this party! It was simple and pretty! I hope to make all of my printables available for you all soon if you want them! Let me know what you think! I love comments!!!!!