Little Green Guy

Monster Food

Traditional Tuesdays
Whole wheat pasta, eggplant and green beans chopped small in my Vitamix, garlic, salt, and fresh basil, oregano and thyme. I told Chili this was Monster food, and that monsters like it because it has lots of vitamins to make them strong and healthy ;) She ate it all!
Check out more Traditional Tuesdays recipes here

Interesting New Flora

What we refer to as the "snake tree." Some cool spikeys.

We call this the "swamp monster tree."

These we call "naked trees" due to their apparent lack of bark.

Some more spikes. Palm trees are so cool!

Just a few images from our morning walks. We are enjoying the novelty of all these new things!

Repurposing Project #8: Pillowcase dress

What a personality! She certainly has some spunk! Here is Chili's dress from the same sarong skirt. Now I just have to do some adjustments so that it will stay tied and in place - 3 year olds are always on the move! Stay tuned, Nena may get one too...

A Good Anytime Meal: Potatoes with veggies

Traditional Tuesdays Chili likes a little smile to start off the day. She thinks everything is better with ketchup :)

This is a common breakfast meal (and sometimes my lunch if there's leftovers). The ingredients are pretty basic, you might have most of them in your fridge, and if you don't, be creative! You can't go wrong with potatoes. Onion, carrot, yellow pepper, and yellow squash blended small in a blender or food processor, or simply cut up. I find that if they are smaller they are less noticable to fussy eaters. It seems more like a sauce, and less like veggies. Some oil, some garlic, and salt and sometimes cumin, and of course potatoes, that I cut pretty small(I add a little cayenne or fresh ground black pepper to mine, but Chili won't eat that, sounds ironic, doesn't it). I added a bit of water to clean the blender and added that to the pan. I have found that it sticks less on my stainless steel pans if I use a little liquid. Cover and cook until done, stirring and testing throughout the cooking. It's done when the fork goes into the potato easily (but you probably already knew that, right :) Switch out one of the ingredients for an instant variation, or swap a spice for a different flavor. Last time I added a little piece of fresh oregano from the garden. Easy, delicious, and healthy!

See more great recipes at Traditional Tuesday blog carnival.

Repurposing Project #7: Skirt

A sarong skirt from a garage sale, cut and added pleats, attached to the band of a pair of maternity pants. Very comfy, and very cool in hot weather. It was pretty much free, except for the 2 needles I broke on the sewing machine making it. Lesson learned: Beware of the metal buttons on the front of a pair of jeans! To come, Chili's matching dress...

Nightime visitors

Look who I found in the backyard when I went to take out the garbage!

Repurposing Project #6: Bread Bags

Made from curtains I got at a garage sale. These were "something to remember me by" gifts for my two besties before I moved...I am wondering if there's enough fabric left to make one for me.

Beef and Brocoli with Chinese Vinegrette

This recipe was so delicious and relatively simple (as far as cooking from scratch goes). Roast from the crock pot(shredded), carrots and onion grated in my blender, fresh garlic, grated ginger, and brocoli. Cook onion, garlic, carrots, and brocoli, and ginger until done. As far as seasonings go I added salt, red pepper flakes, a little sesame oil, and rice vinegar, and a pinch of sugar. (I didn't put the vinegar or oil on until the end.) I served it over brown Jasmin rice, and yum! We will DEFINATELY be having this again.

Raising Bilingual Kids - The Challenges

Raising bilingual kids is no easy feat! I have to admit that since pregnancy with Nena, the amount I speak Spanish has gone down. Sometimes my plate is so full, or my patience is so low, that the first thing that comes out of my mouth is English. I have to constantly remind myself to speak Spanish. Then there is the fact that Chili watches shows on Netflix a little every night, in English. I wish they would put some kids' programs in Spanish on there! So now she is talking increasing amounts of English(ok, almost exclusively English), although she understands 100% of what I say in Spanish. I am hoping with the move that she will be exposed to a little more Spanish. We continue to try every day to increase language exposure with the goal of acheiving fluency in both languages. Poco a poco...

Moving

That's right! We are on the move again. This time out of state. Finally, we are headed to someplace warmer. We are excited for new opportunities and can't wait to get started! I'm excited for the extended gardening season, but I don't know if I will have a place to garden our first year.

Two Beauties

Aren't they precious??!!!

Eggrolls

1 lb ground beef

1/2 shredded cabbage

onion

garlic

shredded carrot

ginger

mung bean sprouts(optional)

Put in pan, ground beef and onion first, then carrot, ginger, and cabbage and sprouts towards the end so they are only partially cooked. Put mix in egg roll wrappers. Fry in sesame oil. Yum!

Cool Cowl

To start with, the word cowl isn't at all appealing to me. Doesn't sound fun, sophisticated, or like anything I would want to put around my neck. But I was inspired by this, and went to the store in search of yarn. I fell in love with this yarn. The color is vibrant and it is a wool/silk blend that is incredibly soft. It was different than the yarn in the pattern I saw, which was probably all the better since the weather is turning warmer anyway. I cast on 60 stitches using size 7 yarn and size 15 needles. Then I knit until I ran out of yarn. This is my result.

CT scan results

Here is just a quick summary of what the CT scan showed. The specialist said that it was not a pulmonary sequestration although there is some sort of abnormality in the lungs. The CT scan shows some enlarged bronchials and some cells that appear black on the CT scan so there is also something not normal about them. The specialist said he didn't have a name for this abnormality as it is not something common. The only way to "fix" something like this would be to take it out, and to do that, he would have to take out the whole lower left lobe of the lung, but considering that it has not caused any difficulties for Nena yet, that option seemed a little drastic in his opinion. Should it cause pneumonia, he would be concerned that there would be some lung scarring, possibly damaging other areas of the lung. If she would have several cases of pneumonia, we would probably have to take it out. If she continues healthy like she has been so far, and has no signs of development on follow-up X-rays then we would probably leave it alone. So it sounds like good news. Although part of me would like to have a permanent solution and know that she's "fixed," it's also good to be able to avoid surgery for the moment.

Sitting Up and More

Chocolate Bean Cake

3 eggs

1/2 c sucanat (or sugar)

1/3 c butter (I used coconut oil instead, I'm sure canola or even olive oil would work too)

3 T cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

1 tsp baking powder

a little salt

1 1/2 c cooked garbanzo, White Northern, or black beans

or 1 can (make sure to rinse and drain them)

put ingredients in food processor or Vitamix blender (wet ingredients on the bottom if you are doing it in the Vitamix), blend until smooth, grease pan, I put it in on 350 for 35 minutes in what I think is an 8 X 8 inch glass pan, top with powdered sugar

It was good. It didn't taste like beans. It has a slightly different texture than if you would have used flour, but I didn't dislike it, just different. It reminded me of brownies.

What? Did you seriously just say that?

From a fast food bag, "Our Secret is No Secret. Why does ********'s food taste so good? Because we make it the way you would. With 100% beef. White meat chicken. Farm fresh produce. From some of the most trusted brands in America."

And the chicken says, "An Excellent Source of Happiness."

WHAT??? There are just so many things wrong with this. I don't even know where to start. First, the idea of marketing fast food as healthy baffles me. Second, they make it the way I would??? um, sorry but no. And selling happiness, I don't think so.

Maybe it should read:

Why does ******'s food taste so good? Because we are careful to make sure it doesn't even resemble real food. We put all kinds of artificial flavors and preservatives. With beef from food lots where cows are walking knee deep in manure, fed food that is not part of their natural diet, crowded into cramped quarters, and pumped full of antibiotics so they won't be sick. With chickens who are bred to have breasts so big they can't even walk, much less forage for food like chickens are supposed to. With produce covered in pesticides and shipped from who knows how many miles away.

But then, who would buy that?

Repurposing Project #5: Tissues

So, I had a ton of receiving blankets, and I figured they might as well be put to good use. It occurred to me that they might as well be cut up and made into tissues since that's what they get used for here most of the time. I like that they are much softer than other alternatives for a little nose that is suffering a cold(or mine for that matter) and that they can be washed and reused. Other than the idea, I can't take much credit for this project. It was my sister-in-law who did most of the serging while I cut threads (yeah, impressive I know). So a big round-of-applause for my sister-in-law for hooking me up with some pretty nifty tissues!

Repurpsing Project #4: Backpack

This was one of Chili's Christmas presents, just never got around to posting. I used some leftover fabric that I was going to make into a dress (but THAT never happened. If you are a crafter/sewer/knitter you probably know about those projects.) and part of an old mattress pad that doesn't fit anyone's bed (used to have a bed that fit it, but no more). It's not anything fancy, but she has a good time playing with it. It needs some sort of closure, but I haven't decided what would be best, and so it is eternally propped open.