Smoothie Snacks

Brock loves getting creative in the kitchen.  I'm hoping someday I'll be able to turn him loose on dinners at least once or twice or week if he keeps up his interest in playing around with different foods.

Smoothies are a snack favorite of his.  We regularly make Green Smoothies, but today tried adding a little more to shake things up a bit.

For a basic green smoothie you need orange juice, banana, yogurt, and spinach.  Amounts depend on your taste, but I usually do something like:

1 1/2 c OJ
2 bananas
2 spoonfulls of plain yogurt, probably around 2-3 tablespoons, I don't really know I just use a spoon from my utensil drawer
1 small handful of spinach, just enough to make it green!
ice, I usually do a couple of handfuls

Be careful to not over do the yogurt or spinach or it will get a bitter taste.  If for some reason it does end up too bitter, just add a little more of something sweet to balance it out.

So for something a little different today, we made PURPLE smoothies!  We added strawberries and blackberries to the mix.  I cut back on the banana and only used 1, and I actually had french vanilla yogurt instead of plain and then all the other stuff as usual.  I don't fret if I don't have a particular ingredient I normally use, I just use what I have.  Seriously, it's hard to mess these up.

Yum!

Framed Menu

This is my new kitchen friend.  A crafter friend of mine makes and sells them.  As soon as she posted this addition to her shop, I knew I needed one!  

You just write on the glass with a dry erase marker and wipe away with a cloth.  Super easy, and cute too!

It gives me a little motivation to put some thought into a weekly menu.  Plus,  I think the boys like having the menu posted.  They ask about having it updated when we near the end of the week. 

Well That Was a Flop

First recipe from my new book failed miserably.  I did it correctly and the presentation was nice.  I even chopped the green onion and cilantro for garnish.  I didn't mind it, but the guys said it tasted awful.   It was a spicy honey glazed chicken.  I think it was the honey in the sauce, apparently dh doesn't care for honey.  I'm not giving up though.  I will keep trying.

In addition to my plan to actually plan, I joined a fruit and veggie co-op; picked up my first bag today.  For $6 I got green beans, red potatoes, oranges, fugi apples, pears, grapefruit, roma tomatoes and some kind of little red peppers, not sure what to do with those.

I will juice some of it, Brock loves to juice.  I want to make green beans with the potatoes in it.  I have to say I've never made "real" green beans before.  I will have to search for a recipe.

Here's the Plan, Stan

What's the plan?

Uh, to actually get a plan.

Right now, I'm reading Feminine Appeal, Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother by Carolyn Mahaney.  This was part of my morning's reading:

"Proverbs 22:3 advises, "The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it."  Planning is a method of "hiding" ourselves and our families from trouble.  Yet so often we "go on" with our lives without stopping to plan.  As a result we reap the same consequences over and over again."


So, yes, getting a plan is the plan!

Last week I mentioned my need for developing my skills in the kitchen.  Most of the problem is due to the fact that I simply don't have a plan.  I don't sit down and make a menu for the week.  I don't have a list when I go shopping.  Whatever happens, just happens to happen!  

Well, I have a plan, I think.

Shani recommended Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely.  I was able to download a copy to my handy-dandy Nook and read through it.  It is mostly recipes and shopping lists organized a week at a time, with tips and tricks thrown in as well.  Looks great.  Today I picked a week and made my adjustments, printed it out, and did my shopping.  We'll see how it goes.   My goal, whether I use the book or not, is to have a menu plan and shopping list for each week.

I know the book and the lists aren't magic or anything.  It's really going to take me putting forth the effort to make the changes that need to be made in order to do good for my family, and to glorify God in my role as keeper of my home.

Mmm-mm, Not So Good

  "She looketh well to the ways of her household..." Proverbs 31:27a


I've never been very good at putting my goals down on paper, or one to make New Year's resolutions for that matter.  Not sure why, never really thought about it.  I do have a little something I'd like to work on though, and it just so happens to come to my attention at the beginning of this new year. 


One area I lack inspiration in is the kitchen.  Oh, sure, my family is fed, and occasionally I'll get a 'this is pretty good' out of one of them. Oo-oo and the other day dh said my fried chicken tenders were better than chicken place in town!  Apparently, I've made some improvement over the years.  But then there have been times I've had to scrap whole meals because the meat was burnt - or the oven catches fire.  Maybe I had forgotten didn't have an ingredient because no forethought was put into the meals for the week.  Perhaps the meal was just meat and a veggie with no particular taste to it.  Dh jokes that he survives on cereal.  He's in a habit of eating a bowl every night before bed.  I take it good naturedly, and he loves me just the same; but there is obvious room for improvement in the meal department.  


I want to "look well to the ways of my kitchen."  


I do enjoy baking and am pretty good at it, but it's the meal times that are particularly lacking.  I definitely think attitude plays into it. It's hard to get passionate about something that you aren't all that good at.  And sometimes I see it as no more than an interruption to my day.  "What?  I have to stop what I'm doing and feed these people?"  Seems very selfish now that it's typed out in black and white. But that's the truth.  Not all the time, but often enough.   


I know providing meals for my family is part of my ministry here on this earth.  God created me to keep this home -  and that includes the kitchen part!  


I am purposing to change my attitude when it comes to preparing meals for my family.  I need to see it as the ministry, the privilege, that it is.  Be thankful for the family I have and the opportunity to show love by cooking good food for them.  No, I may not have a natural bent for cooking, but I need to seek out resources that will inspire me to try harder and find the joy in cooking.  (anybody have any good links? or resources?)  Maybe the old saying "you get out of it what you put into it" will apply.  I may never be a gourmet chef, but it's more about the attitude anyway.  
  
So that's my resolution that I'm not really setting or putting down on paper.  Or did I just do that?!  :-)    

New Year Treats For My Sweets

It seems to have become a tradition that I make a few treats on New Year's Eve.  Of course the 'sweets' are Rick and the boys.

I've never made the Chocolate Crackle Cookies before, but I must say they turned out yummy.  Rick says he needs coffee to go with them.  They are pretty sweet.

I used a recipe that came on a container of cooking oil.  Actually, that is why I bought that particular product - I wanted the recipe!

I make the Chex Mix more for myself, I guess.  We will all snack on it, but I think I like it more than the guys do.

It was always a holiday tradition growing up.  My Oma made it every year.  And, yes, Cheerios do belong in Chex Mix, or Party Trash as we called it growing up.  I just use the seasoning recipe on the cereal box and just add my own mix of cereal, pretzels and nuts.

Birdy Cakes

       (click to join the fun!)

I don't have a barnyard to tend to but do have a few featered friends fluttering around the yard from time to time.  I decided I would leave them a little treat during our icy cold weather.  It gave me a little something to do as I was going a little stir crazy.  Yes, I suppose I could have cleaned out the closets, reorganized the bookshelves, or some other long-time neglected household chore, but what's fun about that?! hehe

Of course I filled the feeder in the back yard Red Oak.

I also made some little birdy cakes and decorated the backyard tree and a few front yard bushed.

I mixed a half cup of boiling water with 2 packets of Knox brand Gelatine and then added birdseed until it was more dry than liquid.  Not precise, I know.  But it worked.  I lined a cake pan with wax paper and put a few heart shaped cookie cutters in it and filled the shapes with the mixture and patted it down.  I stuffed the yarn into it and mashed a little more mixture on top to secure it.  I let them set up in the garage.  (I get a daily email from TipNut.com with all kinds of crafty links and this was one of them.  Sorry I don't have the actual link.  Their instructions were about as precise as mine though ;-) ) 

The next day I trudged outside and hung them.  I forgot gloves and my fingers 'bout froze off the first time I went out.  I remembered gloves the second time! :-)  I keep looking out to see if my birdy friends are up for a treat, but I think they are staying cozy in their nests.  I don't blame them.  

(This one I just used a shallow berry bowl - ran out of cookie cutters to fill.) 

I also made treats for the people too!  Homemade Chocoate Chip, mmm-mmm



Oatmeal Cookies, Chicken 'n Dumplings and Crochet

Sounds pretty farm-girly to me! 

Click to join in the fun!

You know I have never made an oatmeal cookie.  At least not the kind you bake.  I've made the kind on the stovetop with oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa, etc. - you mix it all together and then drop them on a cookie sheet to cool.  But a baked oatmeal cookie - this is a first for me.

I had no raisins, which is fine with me, I much prefer chocolate chips anyway, so I subsitituted the chocolate chips for raisins.  They were a big hit here at home and at my sister's and mom's.  I took a plate over this afternoon when the boys and I went to visit.  My sister just had a baby a couple of weeks ago, so I thought they might like a homebaked treat for an afternoon snack.  Yum!

I need to get going.  I have chicken and dumplings on the menu for tonight and it's about time to de-bone the chicken.  It's been rather cold here, for us anyway. 24 degrees this morning.  I thought it would warm us up as we settle in for a cold winter's evening.

Here's what I have on my hook - it's going to be a small half-circle wrap.  I'm trying to use what I have on hand.  So I'm specifically looking for patterns that go with the yarn and specific amount I have.