Aquarium

Like previously mentioned, Becca was in town this past week, along with her daughter Bella and her fiance Blake. We went to the aquarium one day, which was a first for all of us, accept Elisabeth who went with her school last year.

Elisabeth warned me before hand that there is a sting ray that people can pet. I say warn, not because she was scared, but because she was concerned for her Mom. She's heard the stories, many times, about when Mom and Dad were on their honeymoon and Mom got stung by a sting ray in her foot and had to go to the Emergency Room. They've taken the stingers out of these stingrays so they're perfectly safe, but there was NO WAY I was going to put my hand in there and touch one. Nah-uh. You couldn't pay me to touch one. I have nightmares about stingrays...this would make it all the more real. Okay, I don't really have nightmares, but they do frighten me still. Annabelle and Charlie didn't touch the sting ray, though afterward, Charlie told me he wanted to. I'm not sure if that's entirely true though because when one got close to his hand, he jumped pretty high. And Annabelle put her hand in the water too, but as soon as they started swimming her way, she started to cry so I let her down.

My favorite things to see were the penguins and the jelly fish. The movements of jelly fish are so graceful. As a child, I remember watching tons of them float and swim around in the water in Seattle. The kids favorite was the sting ray, and Annabelle's was the cockroaches. The aquarium was a nice experience, but I don' think we'll make it a regular thing. It's small, crowded and expensive. I lost Charlie 3 times. In fact, one of the times I lost him, my good friend Jessie, who I had no idea was at the aquarium too, found him and had her stay with her until they found me. Thanks Jess! Maybe we'll go again in a few years.



And here are a few pictures from the park and others with Becca's family:

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm 28! Honestly, I feel like I should be in my thirties. I mean, just with all that we've accomplished so far in life and having four children. I feel like I should be older and have more years to my name. I'm actually really looking forward to being thirty. Just two more years to go.

As for birthday festivities this year, Scott and I were lucky to have my sister in town last week. Becca and Blake watched the kids for us Saturday night so Scott and I could go out. We went out to dinner, and on the way there we stopped off at our good friends house, Ben and Gina, for a short visit. We love them and don't get to see them enough.

We ate dinner at Bombay House in Salt Lake. It was SO yummy! Scott and I went to another Indian restaurant several weeks ago in Draper and loved it, and this one was just as good, if not better. And I think the prices were a bit better at the Bombay house. We actually ordered three main dishes :). There were so many things on the menu we wanted to try. We knew we wouldn't be coming back anytime soon because it's a little far from home, you have to wait a little while for your food, and it's not kid friendly enough to bring our four kids. I'm guessing we won't get to go again until we have a family member staying with us again. Though I suppose if we got desperate, we could just order food to go, but like I said, it's a little bit of a drive. We also wanted to have some leftovers for Becca and Blake. Becca really likes Indian food, though Blake is still in the introductory phase :). I didn't have my camera with me at the restaurant, so we took pictures once we got home. And here's a picture of Blake and Becca eating some of the leftovers.

Later that night Scott and I went and saw the new Jane Eyre movie. It was alright. But probably not my favorite adaptation. I hate spending money to see a movie in a theater when it's just 'alright'. Which is precisely why we see very few movies in the theater. Oh well. It was still fun to sit with Scott and be out with him for an extended period of time.

The night before my birthday I put the kids to bed around 820. I told the girls they could read a book but that I wanted them to turn the lights out at 830. At 915 I could still hear Elisabeth humming, so I went down to check on her and Annabelle. I knocked on the door and Elisabeth answered it. "Oh, Mom, I lost track of the time." I looked around her room and to my surprise the room was not messier than when I left, but it was cleaner. Usually when they stay up and play, the room gets pretty cluttered. Elisabeth saw me looking around and added, "I was cleaning my room so you could have a surprise for your birthday." I thought that was the sweetest thing ever. They know, because I tell them, that a clean house is one of my favorite things. Her room and her closet looked so good. I was very impressed. Thank you Elisabeth! You are wonderful!(By the way, the pictures below were taken the next morning, on my birthday. Elisabeth is wearing a soccer uniform in the picture because we signed her up for soccer this week and the uniform is new...so of course she had to wear it. All day. Even to Cafe Rio which is where we went for lunch.)


This morning Scott made me a green smoothie for breakfast, upon my request. I opened gifts from Scott and our parents and read cards from the kids. For lunch I took the kids to Cafe Rio. I was a little nervous taking all four by myself during the lunch rush, but we had a good talk about behavior and my expectations on the way up and everything went really well. Scott came home early from work because he knew I would be teaching a class at church that evening, so we wanted to have dinner and celebrate early. He also came home early enough that I was able to go do a little shopping on my own. He made eggplant parmesan with spaghetti for dinner. We had a sugar cookie pie crust with ice cream on top for dessert. The ice cream on top of mine was Cake Batter from Coldstone. Afterward, we played a balloon game. We had a nice evening. I taught a green smoothie class later that night which went really well. It was a perfect day, or pretty close to it.

Pizza, coconut syrup & more food

I have a phenomenal pizza dough and sauce recipe that we eat every week! This recipe will make four 10 inch pizzas. I make two of them for my family of 6 and then we freeze the other two to eat the following week. Fresh and frozen are wonderful! They're soft, fluffy, with a crisp bottom(for sure if cooked on a good pizza stone), and not labor intensive. It only takes about 15 minutes to put the dough together, though you do have to plan ahead and make sure you allow it several hours to rise. I usually will make the dough sometime before noon the evening we want it for dinner. I'll post my recipe below.

I made cheez-it's again this week. Maren, a good friend of mine, asked if I would try making it in the Blend-tec to see if that was possible. I did and it worked great. I love cheezits. I got together with a couple of my roommates from BYU this past week for our monthly whole-foods get together. It was April's birthday so we indulged a little with tempura(vegetables dipped in a batter and fried. So yummy, but not the greatest for you). April put a pancake and coconut syrup recipe on her blog recently that she found on the Taste is Trump website. I tried it and loved it, and got her permission to include the recipe with her modifications and the picture here on my blog. Thanks April!
Recipes:

My Favorite Pizza Dough

In a large mixing bowl, add 1/2 tsp yeast to 1 c really warm water and 1 c wheat or spelt flour. Cover it and let it stand for about 5 minutes. While you wait, get all your other ingredients out.

Add these ingredients to your yeast mixture, reserving one cup flour, and stir together:

1 cup warm water
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon sea salt
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
5 cups spelt or whole wheat flour(or mixture of both)

Knead 5 minutes, while kneading, add more flour if needed to form a nice elastic dough consistency and so dough sticks more to itself rather than the bowl. Add about 1 Tbsp of olive oil to the bowl to coat sides and cover dough in bowl with towel. Let dough rise 4-6 hours on counter(make sure you're house isn't too cold. If it is, find a warmer place for your dough like on top of a dryer that's going etc). Heat oven with pizza stone for 15-30 minutes at the highest heat (mine is 500 degrees). Divide dough in fourths, roll out on a floured surface. Transfer to a wooden pizza peel or parchment paper and cover with sauce and toppings. Bake on a preheated pizza stone for 5-6 minutes or until crust is crisp. Slide onto a baking sheet to take out of oven. Allow to cool a few minutes for cheese to set before cutting.

Pizza Sauce- taste is trump

16 ounces crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons Frontier Pizza Seasoning(I just used a pizza seasoning from Winco..I don't know the brand)
2 tablespoons sucanat
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Stir to combine.

Coconut Syrup- from taste is trump

Place in saucepan over medium heat:
1/2 cup sucanat
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp (sea) salt

Once the sucanat has dissolved, add in:

1- 13.66oz can of coconut milk

Mix in well. If not thick enough you can add in about a tablespoon of corn starch and a smidgen of water to mix it beforehand, add the mixture into your syrup and bring to a boil to thicken. If it's too thick, add a little water.

Once the desired thickness is achieved, remove from heat. Add in:

1 tsp vanilla.

General Conference

Every April and October we get to listen to the Prophet and the Apostles speak. I love it! And I love that the very next month I get to have all the talks printed out in the Ensign(a church magazine).

Charlie went to the evening priesthood session with Scott. He went last time as well. He does really well. From what Scott tells me, he sits pretty still and will take notes in his journal. Here are the notes he took from this conference. You can click on it to enlarge it. It says things like, "The prophet teaches us about Jesus. The prophet teaches about Jesus because they want us to repent. The missionaries teach us about the gospel. The prophet wants us to love people." I thought he did a great job sounding out all those words. After priesthood session, Scott always takes Charlie out for ice cream which is something Char looks forward to.

And here are a couple of random pictures we took in the kitchen recently. I love the one of Charlie and Jane.

Uncommon

1. My sister and I were able to celebrate our April birthdays together, which is uncommon. She was here on her actual birthday so we did a couple of typical birthday celebratory activities, for the kids. Later that night Scott, me, Becca, Blake(her fiance) and her friend Jamie went out for dessert. I know I've said this before but sisters really are the best. Especially when you're older and you can really appreciate one another.


2. We had quite a bit of snow this month, in April. Sunday morning, general conference morning, we woke up and saw that a big chunk of our neighbors tree and fallen into the street and was blocking half of the road. This neighbor was a part of the filming crew for conference and had to leave early in the morning. While they were gone, many of the other neighbors got together, including Scott, and went to work on that tree. It was fun and sweet to watch. They got the wood all chopped up and moved out of the way. I love our neighbors.

3. Seeing Christine. Christine is an old friend from Washington. We were good friends in junior high. We got back in touch this past year through blogging. She lives in Utah as well. She recently had a baby shower and I was able to go and visit with her.
4. Charlie fell asleep after his shower, still naked, wrapped up in a towel. I guess he was tired.

Cafe Rio-type Burritos and My Guacamole

We've made these burritos quite a few times recently because we love them. I just made them the other night for my little sister, Becca's, birthday. My sister and I don't usually get to celebrate our birthdays together anymore because we live so far apart, so this was fun!

This recipe is one of our family favorites. I love Cafe Rio and I love this recipe! So yummy! I usually leave the chicken out of my own burrito because I like it just as well without, but the chicken is good, and Scott and Elisabeth always like to have it inside. I make my burritos with whole wheat tortillas and I use brown rice. I also put a dollop of guacamole on the side with some salsa. Here are some of the recipes you'll need to put this all together. The nice thing about these burritos is that most of the foods that go inside you can prepare in advance. So cook the beans and rice the day before and just warm it up. You can do the same with the burrito sauce and the guacamole. Some of these recipes are from websites, and several I've adapted to our tastes. And the guacamole is a Garnica recipe which I LOVE!

Cafe Rio Rice

2 c water (if using brown rice you'll need 2 1/2 c water)

1/2 tsp cumin

1 c rice

1 can green chiles

1 tsp chicken bouillon

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp/clove minced garlic

1 Tbsp butter

1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

Brown rice in pan with butter and garlic. Add water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Add rest of ingredients. Stir together. Cook until rice is done, 15-20 minutes...if making with brown rice, cook about 40-45 minutes, until rice is done.

Cafe Rio Chicken

1/2 bottle zesty Italian dressing

1-2 lbs chicken

1/2 Tbsp chili powder

1/2onion, diced

1/2 Tbsp cumin

2 cloves garlic minced

Roast in crock pot 4 hours on high. Then shred meat. Roast 1 more hour.

Cafe Rio Burrito

For the sauce:
1 small can diced chilies
1 7 oz. can Salsa Verde (I used "Embasa" brand)
1/2 c. chicken broth
2 tsp. Sucanat
1 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients in small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for at least 20 minutes. Serve warm. You can also refrigerate it overnight after simmering if you are making it in advance (My husband said it tasted even better the next day after all the flavors had settled). Just reheat in the small saucepan before serving.

For the burrito:
1 large whole wheat tortilla

Lettuce

1 large scoop rice

1 large scoop beans(I use canned black beans when I haven't prepared enough in advance, otherwise I cook my own black or pinto beans)

Guacamole

1 large scoop cooked shredded chicken

Sour Cream

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese, to taste

Green Enchilada Sauce (see recipe above)

Roll up rice, beans, chicken and cheese in large tortilla shell to form the burrito. Slather with a big ladle full of the green enchilada sauce and top with additional Monterey Jack cheese. Place in the oven at 450-degrees until cheese is melted. Serve with lettuce, pico de gallo or salsa, guacamole, and/or sour cream. Sorry, not a great picture of the burrito. But I promise, it's amazing!

Guacamole-lightly adapted from Grandpa Luis Garnica (I'm obsessed with this guacamole!!)

3 ripe avocados, mashed

1 roma tomato, chopped fine

1 green jalapeno chopped fine

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove garlic

pinch of white pepper

2 small green onions, chopped fine

1/4 squeezed lemon

1 Tbsp mayo(optional-I never use this anymore)

Mash all ingredients together and chill.

Robyn's Granola

Here is another granola recipe I really like. The kids prefer my recipe, but they like this one alright too, so I make this probably once a month and my other recipe about 3 times a month(A batch this size lasts us about a week so I generally make a batch a week). This one is a little softer than my other recipe. Both granola recipes are very similar. The major difference is with the sweeteners. My recipe uses agave and honey. Robyn's recipe uses honey, molasses and maple syrup. I love the way this recipe makes my kitchen smell. When my niece walked in the kitchen this morning while it was cooking she asked, "Are you making cinnamon rolls?" I forgot to take a picture, but it looks just like the picture in my other granola recipe, which is posted on here, maybe just a tad bit darker because of the molasses. Here it is:

Robyn's Granola (I made some of my own modifications which are in bold italics)

Full of fiber, Omega 3 fatty acids, and live sprouts—whole-foods nutrition perfect for children! You won't get hungry before lunch, and kids won't be nagging for snacks. I double this recipe and make it in a big broiler pan with a lid, where I keep it until it's gone- a double batch lasts my four kids(big eaters!) well over a week.

Makes 25-35 servings

Mix the following together well in a large broiler pan:

8 c rolled oats (not instant which are a processed food)

1 c raw wheat germ(found in bulk at health food stores and Winco; high in B vitamins)

1 c shredded coconut(found in bulk at health food stores and Winco; not the sugary kind with propylene glycol at the regular grocery store)

1/2 c freshly ground flax seed(I use $10 coffee grinder from Wal-mart) -I only make it with 1/4 c, because I like the taste better.

1 c raw nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds; cashews need not be raw, unless you can afford those!)

1/4 c sesame seeds

2 Tbsp cinnamon- I only use 1 Tbsp...it's a little strong for my taste

Heat the following on the stove until just melted, stirring well:

1/2 c raw honey

1/2 c molasses or Grade B maple syrup- I do 1/4c molasses, 1/4c syrup

1/2 c water

optional: 1/2 c coconut oil – I use 1/4 c

optional: 1 tsp maple or vanilla extract- I use the vanilla

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until distributed evenly. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring well halfway through the baking process.

Serve with almond or rice milk and optionally sprinkle in 2 Tbsp sprouted raw sunflower seeds. (Cover 1/2 pint of seeds with filtered water overnight, then drain I the morning- they are now living food with vastly more enzymes and nutrients. You can also sprout raw almonds or pumpkin seeds to add to your granola in the morning.)

Note: keeps in the pantry for up to 2 weeks or in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.

How many more days until Saturday?

"How many more days until Saturday?" This is the question we've gotten from Charlie every day since t-ball started last Saturday. He LOVED it! My good friend Elisa got us involved with this particular t-ball group. They call it 'backyard ball' and there is a family in her (Elisa L.'s) neighborhood who found families in the area with kids aged 4 and 5 and were able to put 2 teams together with 9 on each team. Every child pays $10 so they can have matching t-shirts and a trophy at the end, and that's all for fees. We have 'games' each Saturday; we get together for an hour and during the first half hour the kids divide into three groups: hitting, throwing and catching. During the second half hour they play a game. The parents provide drinks and treats and several of the dad's, including Scott, help out during the first half when all the kids divide into groups for practice.

Tangled Cake

I made this cake for our little neighbors birthday. I really like the way the tower turned out. I made it using two cake cones, stuck together, end to end, wrapped in fondant. I used a cobblestone impression mat on the fondant and then painted the stones with a few different icing colors, water and a paint brush. The top of the tower I sculpted using rice crispy treats and then covered them in fondant. It was fun looking at pictures of Rapunzel's actual tower and then doing all the little fondant details on the tower. Scott helped cut out flowers, mix some colors, make a support for the tower, and picked music for us to listen to. I love that I can include Scott in my cake decorating hobby. It makes it even more enjoyable when I have him by my side.

Most of the rest of the cake is done in butter cream, even the little river is butter cream, mixed with a little piping gel and cake sparkles to give it more of a 'watery' look. The trees are sugar cones turned upside down and covered in royal icing little stars.

Here are a few pictures of the process:

In Defense of Food

I recently read the book, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. The basic overarching theme of the book is to, 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'

I didn't like everything I read, as is the case with all health food books, but I did take some good notes on the parts I did like. From those notes, I gathered my favorite highlights and that's what this post is about. If you were curious about the book, but didn't want to read the whole thing, this post is for you. If you have no interest in health, stop here; this will just bore you.

When Pollan says 'eat food', he means that exactly. He says there are tons of food-like substances (processed foods with lots of different additives), but that we should eat real, whole foods. He gives some statistics and says Americans eat a lot more calories now than we did back in the 1980s. He says we eat by quantity not quality and that we manage to be "both overfed and undernourished, two characteristics seldom found in the same body in the long natural history of our species.”

Pollan says that the absence of nutrients in our bodies(that we get from plants) may counteract the normal feeling of satiety after enough calories are eaten.

In the third and last section of his book, Pollan gives some tips for choosing your foods. I copied the next few paragraphs word for word because I really liked it:

• "Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize.

  "Imagine your great grandmother at your side as you roll down the aisles. You're standing together in front of the dairy case. She picks up a package of Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt tubes- and has no idea what this could possibly be. Is it a food or a toothpaste?...You could tell her it's just yogurt in a squirtable form, yet if she read the ingredients label she would have every reason to doubt that that was in fact the case. Sure, there's some yogurt in there, but there are also a dozen other things that aren't remotely yogurt like, ingredients she would probably fail to recognize as foods of any kind, including high-fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, kosher gelatin, carrageenana, tricalcium phosphate, natural and artificial flavors, vitamins, and so forth(and there's a whole other list of ingredients for the 'berry bubblegum bash' flavoring, containing everything but berries or bubblegum.) How did yogurt, which in your great grandmothers day consisted simply of milk inoculated with a bacterial culture, ever get to be so complicated?” pg 148-149

  “There are in fact hundreds of foodish products in the supermarket that your ancestors simply wouldn't recognize as food: breakfast cereal bars transected by bright white veins representing, but in reality having nothing to do with, milk; 'protein waters' and 'nondairy creamer'; cheeselike food stuffs equally innocent of any bovine contribution; cakelike cylinders (with creamlike fillings) called Twinkies that never grow stale. Don't eat anything incapable of rotting is another personal policy you might consider adopting.

  “One of the problems with the products of food science is that...they lie to your body; their artificial colors and flavors and synthetic sweeteners and novel fats confound the senses we rely on to assess new foods and prepare our bodies to deal with them. Foods that lie leave us with little choice but to eat by the numbers, consulting labels rather than our senses.

  It's true that foods have long been processed in order to preserve them, as when we pickle or ferment or smoke, but industrial processing aims to do much more than extend shelf life. Today foods are processed in ways specifically designed to sell us more food by pushing our evolutionary buttons- our inborn preferences for sweetness and fat and salt. These qualities are difficult to find in nature but cheap and easy for the food scientist to employ, with the result that processing induces us to consume much more of these ecological rarities than is good for us."
  

• "Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A)unfamiliar, B) unpronounceable, C) more than five in number, or that include D) high-fructose corn syrup."

And here's another short quote I liked which talks about the importance of eating meals together as a family.

“It is at the dinner table that we socialize and civilize our children, teaching them manners and the art of conversation. At the dinner table parents can determine portion sizes, model eating and drinking behavior, and enforce social norms about greed and gluttony and waste. Shared meals are about much more than fueling bodies; they are uniquely human institutions where our species developed language and this thing we call culture.” pg 189

Steel cut oatmeal

We love oatmeal and eat it several times a week. Jane likes to have oatmeal every day. Sometimes I use rolled oats and sometimes I use steel cut oats. The difference between steel cut and rolled oats is that steel cut oats are raw whereas rolled oats are steamed and then rolled flat. Whenever you cook something you lose some of the nutrients, but steaming isn't the worst thing you could do. I personally look at both of these oats as really good, healthy options. Rolled oats are an excellent choice and steel cut oats are a little better because they have even more nutrients. They're both inexpensive. Steel oats cost a little more, but steel oats also use 4 parts water to 1 part oats; so when I cook the recipe below which calls for 1 cup of steel oats, it actually makes 5 cooked cups! Rolled oats you use 2 parts water to 1 part oats. So, in that sense, I'm not sure if rolled oats are still cheaper because steel oats make so much more. Also, steel oats have a little more of a nutty flavor and is a has a little more texture to it- it ends up looking more like little balls than mush.

Here is the quick and easy way to make steel oats. If you don't cook them the night before (for 1 minute, like the recipe says), and decide to cook it during the day, from start to finish it takes 40 minutes of cooking time. Compared to the one minute of cooking the night before, it'd be wise to plan ahead and make it before you go to bed. In our family, this recipe will usually last for several days. If you have a smaller family, you might want to reduce the ingredients and cook 1/2 c steel oats in 2 c water.

Steel Cut Oatmeal

4 c water

1 c steel oats

Combine in a large saucepan and boil for one minute. Cover and let sit overnight. In the morning boil for a few minutes if needed(mine has never needed this extra boiling time).

Optional additions for a bowl of oatmeal: pinch of stevia, agave, fruit, chia seeds, dried shredded unsweetened coconut, milk(any kind), wheat germ etc

Stats for Jane and Annabelle

Jane and Annabelle had their wellness checks with the doctor today. Here are the results:

Jane- 1 year
Weight: 17.42 lbs, 4%
Height: 27.56 in, 9%
Head Circumference: 17.6 in, 40%

Jane got 4 immunizations in three shots, and she needed to get her blood drawn again to check her iron levels(The doctor says they check iron levels in all breast fed babies once they reach a certain age). She was still a little low on her iron so I'll be giving her a liquid iron supplement daily, until her next appointment. Jane is small, but all our children have been small and turned out fine, so we're not too worried. I looked at the stats of our children at this age, and Annabelle weighed the same. Jane eats well so I think it's only a matter of time before she fattens up a bit more. Though Scott is skinny and always has been so I don't think any of our kids will ever be very large. :) Jane is strong and energetic and doing great.

Annabelle- 3 years
Weight: 28.22 lbs, 20%
Height: 35.79 inches, 16 %
BMI(body mass index): 15.5, 44%

Annabelle received one immunization. She took it like a champ; and I'm sure the sucker they offered her helped. Annabelle has a great BMI and everything looks great.

Diagram:Effects of soda

I found this on my sister-in-law's blog awhile back. I think it's safe to say that you will do your body a big favor by staying away from soda.

Tangled coupon

Tangled, the movie, comes out on dvd tomorrow. My family loved this movie. We've seen it twice, once in the expensive movie theater and once at the dollar theater. Elisabeth has asked for it for her birthday so I'm going to get it this week while there are sales.

If you buy it this week at Target, you can get it for a discounted price. The dvd will be on sale for $15.99(normally $29.99) and the 4 disc combo--dvd, blu-ray 3D, 3D--will be on sale for $24.99(normally $49.99). Disney also has a coupon that's good until April 3rd(but use it this week if you want the Target discount, too) for $5 off the blu-ray, 4 disc combo pack, so instead of getting it for $24.99, you'll get it for $19.99. Not bad. I'm going to get mine this week. You can find the Disney coupon here.