What's for dinner this week?

The meal planning went well this week. The vegetable pot pie was a new recipe for me. I loosely followed a recipe in Barefoot Contessa (Parties), and it turned out so yummy. Major comfort food. The ingredient that made it special was the saffron. Just a few threads gave it this beautiful golden color and unique taste. I made an olive oil crust (a first), thanks to Erin, and I was really happy with it. Great flavor! Below is a photo, and I didn't have much time to make the crust too beautiful. But it was yummy and the leftovers were even better.

















This week:

Monday: Vegetable Pot Pies (snowed in)
Tuesday: Salmon, Roasted Beets, and Sauteed Cabbage (Sela's fav)
Wednesday: Black Bean Soup, cornbread and guacamole
Thursday: Quinoa Wraps
Friday:Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Creamy Tomato Soup, Bread, Salad
Sunday: Sloppy Lentil Joes with Coleslaw

It's snowing in Seattle again! This must be global warming :)

We woke up to a whiteout this morning. I had no idea this was coming. We had a school holiday today which worked out great. I'm sure school would have been cancelled anyway. This is the most snow we've had at this house. There were six inches in some places. It is quite magical. The sun came out and it was nice enough to stay out for hours, even with Rollin. We took the sleds out and built a snowman family to match our family. That gave me a small workout, since the kids were good at the beginning stages, but then pooped out when the snowballs got heavy. They did enjoy the decorating and dressing of their snowmen/snowwomen. After having record rain last January, the weather this year has been amazing. We've still had rain, but there's been lots of other great weather mixed in. I love the changes. Fortunately, I made an extra veggie pot pie yesterday and we have plenty of hot cocoa. We're hoping school is cancelled again tomorrow!






a



a

What are you hiding in that box little Rollin?

Cookies, of course!























We bought this huge box of animal crackers to take up sledding last week and Rollin believes they are all his. He will shriek at us if we even come near. He drags it all over the house and guards it as best he can with his little body.

Sela's photography

Our little Nina is not feeling well at all. I found this photo by Sela tonight when I was uploading others. I was really impressed.
Dad, I thought you might like this little outfit of Rollin's.

Cinderella play

Sela had a small part this weekend in the school play, Cinderella. She helped make posters to decorate the whole school and read part of a poem to introduce the play. Nina was a bit tired at the end of the play, and not too happy. We took our neighbor, Kelly Ospina, with us and the girls headed to her house for a playdate afterwards...she has a new puppy so the girls were very excited!

Snow and Sun!!!

This week the weather has been absolutely wonderful. Clear, sunny and cold. On Friday, I picked Sela up early from school and we went to Hyak to go sledding with my friend, Lisa, and her son, Sam. We had so much fun and the whole drive up Rollin kept saying whoa, whoa, whoa as he saw the snow covered mountains. We had a great time and Sela thought the sledding hills and snow caves were great! Rollin wouldn't wear his gloves, so I had to put socks on his hands, and Nina loved to ride on the sled with Lisa and then became quite the diva when she got cold.







I'm cold!

Thrift store fun, spongy curlers, and bubble blowing

With kids, it really is the simple things that seem to have the greatest impact, at least that's how it's been this week at our house.

Nina has been sneaking off with our wallets lately in order to have the materials she deems necessary to play "mom." She has my old cell phone, lots of important keys and some lip gloss. She also snagged a garage door opener. She demands Zig's wallet as soon as he gets home and both of us have become very hesitant because cards, money, and such always go missing after being put in Nina's purse. I decided to check a thrift store this week to find a grown up wallet for Nina. I knew no kid wallet would work. I found a perfect medium sized red leather wallet. Less than two bucks. I filled it with some of my outdated cards and Erin's costco card she left behind, and gave it to Nina when I picked her up from school. You would have thought she got a trip to Disneyland. She was literally speechless. It was so cute. She has told me thank you a million times.

















While at the thrift store, we found this enormous sack of plastic mega blocks. Coincidentally, I had just spent some time at the bank trying to pry Rollin away from their mega blocks. I really don't like plastic toys, and many have have found their way to the trash, but these blocks he could actually manipulate and construct towers. So, we decided to buy them. 6 bucks for a huge trash bag full. Oh, and as we made our way to the cash register, I saw this little quilt with lots of mod looking colors on it and jsut had to take a closer look. It was so cute and it kind of made me sad looking at all the hours and hours that must have gone into knitting this quilt by some adorable grandma only for it to be sitting in a thrift store for 2 dollars. We just couldn't leave it behind. So, we went for a wallet and came out with a bit more. That was our thrift store fun!




















The spongy curlers are back again. This time just for Nina. She was a trooper sleeping in them, and said she had to turn her head over and over all night long, but it was worth it. I love her with curls...it seems to fit her personality well.




















Tonight everyone ate their dinner without having to be encouraged so I decided to make them some chocolate milk for being so good. Sela discovered she could blow huge bubbles in the milk and then it became a game for all of them. They were laughing and playing and having great fun trying to make the biggest bubbles. Even little Rollie boo figured it out.




Rollin enjoying the boy toys at Mrs. Judy's

Meal Planning

One of my resolutions for this year is to be better about planning meals. I have done this before but I somehow lose my lists and plans that took time and then I wonder, what was that recipe I made months ago...etc, etc. So today I was thinking that posting my weekly meal plan will give the lists a permanent home and also help me to keep at it.

This week:

Monday: Mini ravioli with mushrooms, peas and cream
Tuesday: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup(Sela's favorite), green salad
Wednesday: Turkey Taco Salads
Thursday: Rice Bowls with Teriyaki tempeh and mango salsa
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Vegetable Pot Pies, salad
Sunday: Salmon en papillote with veggies.

cookies cookies cookies

These little cookies are a forgotton favorite. I made them a lot when I first got the recipe several years ago and here and there since, but we've definitely been on a thumbprint cookie kick lately. I love this recipe because it's made with whole grains and almonds and it has a very small amount of sweetener. It can be changed by using different flours, juice, nuts, and jam. The better the jam, the better the cookie. We love to have tea parties around here and they are the perfect little cookie for a warm cup of herb tea (Madagascar Vanilla Bean is our current favorite). Yum.

Apricot Thumbprint Cookies

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup almonds (ground into 1/2 cup meal)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cold pressed vegetable oil, or melted butter
1/3 cup apricot juice (I've used apple and orange juice)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla
Apricot preserves (or strawberry, peach, etc)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix oil, juice, syrup, and extracts together. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well. Form dough into balls and flatten to make circles. Place on cookie sheet. Indent cookies with your thumb or your child's thumb and put 1/2 tsp preserves in the imprint. Bake 15 minutes or until edges turn golden.

(Feeding the Whole Family, by Cynthia Lair)

Sweet Dreams

There are few things I love more than the sight of the girls cuddled up together sleeping deeply. It melts my heart and even on the toughest days, it can bring tears to my eyes. Not just because they are finally asleep (haha), but because they are sisters and they comfort each other whether they know it or not. It is instinct even when they are asleep to be there for one another. Having such a special bond with my own sister, I am so happy for them and look forward to watching them grow up together.

I also love to see little Rollin fast asleep...more than words can express...but some chances aren't worth taking. Once he is sound asleep, there is just no way I'd risk a camera in his room. Maybe when he's twelve.

Eat your veggies

We get a produce delivery each week from a local farm. Every week it is different, based on what is in season and available, which I love. We have learned to eat a huge variety of vegetables we might not normally buy. This week we had these yummy little purple carrots which are Sela's favorite. However, some weeks it takes some effort to eat everything before it goes bad, so I've started making veggie trays before meals with different dips. The kids always seem to want snacks right before dinner and I've noticed that they will devour all kinds of veggies when the moment is right and their tummies are hungry. It makes dinner less stressful, because they have already eaten their veggies.

The other way we try to eat up the veggies is on pizza. This week we sauteed chard which was a new addition, but it was soooo yummy. I plastered my little pie in it and Zig's as well. The girls started with just one piece, which is fine. I just get so happy that they are willing to try new things.

The Brave Little Tailor

I rarely take the girls to the animated kids movies that are so popular these days because I get insanely bored, but I do love taking them to plays. Today I took the girls and a friend to see a wonderfully entertaining play called The Little Tailor. It was so much fun...I enjoyed it as much as the girls. At this theater they take classic stories and put a unique and often humorous spin on them. They frequently cast men in women's roles (like the giant in this one) and it's just so funny. Today was very, very dreary so it was nice day for a play.

Sela, Nina and Perrie waiting for the play to start.
The husband and wife giants.
The princess and "the king." The girls didn't get the whole king thing, but when he said his lines which had nothing to do with elvis, he did all the moves, and he was quite good!