Family Meal Plan Friday: Easy-peasy

The one good thing about Hubs being out of town is that it means I don't HAVE to cook unless I want to do so. With it being just Bryleigh and me, it seems a little pointless to cook a full meal, so we usually will have very simple fair like baked chicken breasts and steamed veggies. 

Today, however, we're heading to a neighboring state to spend the weekend with my family, and I know that we'll probably get back too late to hit the grocery store for a full week's worth of shopping after driving home and dropping the dogs off Sunday afternoon/evening. Therefore, I have a very loose plan in my head for next week, but nothing like my normal fare.

Sunday: Grab-and-go soup from the grocery store

Monday: Shrimp cakes from the fresh fishery at the grocery store, organic boxed mac and cheese, and steamed cauliflower with garlic-lemon-pepper seasoning.

Tuesday: Dinner with the girls at my sister-in-law's house, while Uncle Neal takes Bryleigh on a date

Wednesday: Chicken Kelsidillas (recipe coming soon)

Thursday: Farmers' Market fresh pizza

Friday: Mommy/daughter date on the Square

Thankful Thursday: Good news

When was the last time you did a Happy Dance? Every time B gets good news, she wiggles her tiny three-year-old body into a little Happy Dance. There’s no consistency whatsoever—whether in the dance itself or from one to the next. It consists of face beaming, arms wiggling, knees bending, feet stomping, butt wagging, head shaking and the occasional jazz hands. Watching this little Happy Dance just breeds joy… Anyone who sees it can’t help but grin, and even strangers have stopped to comment on what a happy child she is.

Whether you tell her she doesn’t have to make her bed, she can have ice cream after dinner, you’re throwing her a birthday party or she’s going to Disney World—the result is the same. An infectious little Happy Dance that makes you feel as though you just won the lottery and found out you were the long lost royalty of Sweden. 

I rarely do Happy Dances anymore. When I get good news, I smile; it makes me happy, but I don’t Happy Dance or squeal or get all excited anymore. I realized that yesterday, and it made me sad. I think that we could all use a lot more Happy Dances in our lives, and next time B gets some good news and starts to do a Happy Dance, I just might join her.

This Thursday I’m thankful for good news in every shape, form and fashion. Both yesterday and today, the Hubs has told me some really good news, and it’s made me happy. I’m thankful that he’s my Hubs, and I’m thankful that he’s excelling where he is. I’m thankful that all the hard work and all the hours he’s put in over the past 15 months are starting to pay off. 

Most of all, I’m happy that he’s happy about it. 

I might even do a Happy Dance… with a jazz hands finale, of course.

And Bingo was her name-oh

One of our dogs, if she were a human, would probably be in a nursing home by now. She’d be enjoying 4pm soft-food suppers and afternoon shuffleboard with her senior friends. She’s a 14-year-old border collie mix. That’s 98 in dog years. She can no longer hear—when we call for her to go outside, we physically have to either touch her or stomp on the floor to get her attention. Her eyes have the glossed-over appearance of cataracts, although according the vet, her vision is still decent. She literally trudges through our all-hardwood-floor house because her poor brittle bones can hardly withstand the weight of her body. We give her medication twice a day for the pain in her bones and joints.

And yet she’s still spry enough, somehow, to catch a freaking chipmunk.

I kid you not; I came home yesterday and opened the back door to let the girls in. Hadley came charging through the door as usual. She’s a 70-pound border collie / lab mix—I call her a “Labraborder.” But a slight whimper from Savannah sent a chill down my spine (because she’s so OLD). All of a sudden, I heard a scuffle and see a chipmunk come darting out of our little firepit and across the yard.

Then I realize… Savannah is INSIDE the firepit. She’d crawled her little arthritic tail in there and had the chipmunk pinned in her front paws, and when I came outside and clapped my hands, it startled her just enough to permit the chipmunk’s escape.

Out slithers Savannah with a look on her little old face that holds a mixture of guilt and sheepishness, but her attitude walking into the house is one of pure annoyance that I’d interrupted what was sure to be the best day of her life.

No mid-morning bingo for that one yet.

Tried-and-true Tuesday: Blueberry pancakes

I love the internet. I really do. I don't know how we lived in the 80s and 90s without all this knowledge at our fingertips.

Want to know a list of all the episode titles of the sitcom Friends? Simply Google "friends episode titles" and you'll find a host of websites that list every episode. 

Making buttermilk biscuits and realize that you're out of buttermilk? Google "buttermilk substitutes," and you'll find loads of suggestions and instructions on how to make your own buttermilk using whole milk and lemon juice.

Wanna make the best blueberry pancakes ever? Google "best blueberry pancakes ever" and you'll find thousands of recipes for highly rated blueberry pancakes on recipe sites, as well as hundreds of personal and professional blog entries in which people have posted their own recipes. 

That's exactly what I did this weekend when I was making my weekly meal plan. Hubs is out of town, so B, who's now three, by the way, and I are on our own this week. I thought it would be fun to have breakfast for dinner one night because she can always help me cook pancakes and sausage, and it's something she actually enjoys doing (and having her help keeps her from asking me if she can watch Team Umizoomi every 40 seconds as I try to prepare our dinner). 

I've made blueberry pancakes before, but I couldn't remember what recipe I used, and I wanted a really good one. So I Googled "best blueberry pancakes ever," and the second entry that came up was this one: Todd's Famous Blueberry Pancakes. I glanced over it; it seemed simple enough, though a little annoying that it requires waiting around for an hour, but "what the hell?" I thought, "I'll just make them on Tuesday night when I work from home and will have that extra hour." So onto the meal plan it went.

Now Todd's recipe may be fine and may, in fact, be the "best blueberry pancakes ever." I wouldn't know, because, as always, I altered the recipe to my own taste. They turned out fantastic. Here is my altered recipe.

Best Blueberry Pancakes Ever

Prep: 10 minutes | Wait: 45 minutes | Cook: 15 minutes

Serves 3

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoon white sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 tablespoon butter, melted

1 pint fresh blueberries

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. In a small bowl, stir together egg and milk. Stir milk and egg into flour mixture. Stir in the butter, vanilla and spices. Fold in the blueberries. Set aside for 45 minutes.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/3 cup for each pancake. Wait until the pancake begins to bubble before flipping. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

I think the waiting time allows the baking powder to do it's job and makes the pancakes extra fluffy, but I don't think an hour is necessary. I really just didn't have the hour I thought I would, which is why I only waited 45 minutes. The texture of the pancakes really turned out lovely though. They were delightfully fluffy without being too heavy. Adding the extra blueberries made them so... um... blueberry-y, and the added spices and vanilla gave them a sweetness without added sugar.

You think these blueberry pancakes are good? You should try The Best French Toast Ever... As soon as you finish looking at that list of Friends episodes and figuring out whether you've seen them all.

Back in the saddle again? Doubtful.

I've been playing around with my blog, trying to teach myself html coding, so if things look funky, that's why. Hoping to get back into things and start this up again. Of course, I say that all time and never follow through more than a week. Oh, well. At least I'm having fun.

A book full of love and sparkles

Bryleigh and I just dropped Hubs off at the airport. He’s heading to a tiny, unpronounceable town in Finland for business, and it’s breaking my heart because he’s going to miss Bryleigh’s first-ever ballet recital on Monday evening. Granted, we’re using the term “ballet” loosely when speaking of a class of 1- to 2-year-olds. In fact, the class is actually called “Creative Movement”, but still… It’s going to be on a stage, and they all have costumes and a routine they’re supposed to follow. I just hate that he’s going to miss it, and so does he. If we’d known about the recital prior to the scheduling of this trip, he’d have arranged to go a week before or a week after if at all possible.

This morning I was feeling guilty that Andrew was going to miss the recital, so Bryleigh and I left early for her ballet class so that I could take her to the book store across the Square and buy her a new book. Yeah, I ended up buying her three new books. I couldn't help myself.

It’s a Firefly Night, written by Dianne Ochiltree and illustrated by Betsy Snyder, is an absolutely gorgeous little book about a father waking up his little girl to go outside and catch fireflies on a warm summer night. Written as a poem and with a full spread of scientific facts about fireflies at the end, the book is filled with breathtaking illustrations and even some counting fun for toddlers. One part that I love about it is that it explains that the fireflies don’t belong to the little girl, and she lets them go before following her daddy back inside. 

On Beyond Zebra by Dr. Seuss was a favourite when I was a little girl. While my parents kept a lot of my old books for when we had kids, I’m sure this one was given away to someone or sold at a yard sale. I seem to remember a page or two was ripped in my dog-eared copy. This little ditty starts out with a little boy proudly writing the alphabet and claiming that he now knows everything there is to know when his older brother or friend corrects him by introducing him to a litany of new interesting symbols and letters used to spell unimaginable Seussian words like Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer, Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs and Vrooms.

Plant a Kiss is an inspiring book about sharing love written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (author of another of our favourites—Little Hoot) and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. It tells the tale of Little Miss (which is something we often call Bryleigh), who plants a kiss and patiently waits until it blossoms, at which point, to the dismay of her peers who think it’s far too rare to share, she harvests it and spreads it all over the world until she has none left. However, she then returns to her plant to discover that her one little kiss has bloomed into “endless bliss”. It’s a lovely little book filled with love and sparkles.

By the way, my friend made her decision, and although I don’t think it’s the choice I’d have made, I am 100 percent certain that it’s the right decision for her. I’m proud of her.

A good marriage is built on compromise

My friend called me today and is being faced with one of the most difficult decisions she’ll ever have to face in her entire life. I’m not going to go into any details, but it got me thinking about how we make decisions. In our family, we talk over all major decisions at length and make decisions together. The hubs and I usually broach the subject with each other and initially discuss the pros and cons of going one way or the other, and then we’ll let the topic lie for a while before bringing it up again. During this time when we’re not discussing it with each other, both of tend to talk about it our friends and families and get their opinions and insights as well. Then we’ll finally reconvene—each of us having made up our minds individually—and we’ll discuss it again, this time bearing research and external feedback in favor of our position. Usually by this point we’re in agreement, but sometimes one or the other of us will need some extra coaxing. And there’s always compromise.

I don’t know what I would do if I had to make all the decisions on my own. I know that my friend will make the right decision, but I don’t feel for her right now having to do it alone.

Crazy 'bout chicks

I know. I’m a horrible blogger. I keep up with it for a month and then forget about it. Problem is that I get stressed out and feel as though I no longer have time for it. Oh, well. It’s really just for me anyway.

Well, lately I’ve become a better blog reader and have a lot that I love to follow. One in particular is The Art of Doing Stuff. It’s written by this amazing Canadian woman (well, I assume she’s Canadian because she lives in Canada) named Karen who just does all these brilliant projects on her own. It’s what I would aspire to do if I didn’t have to work a full-time job and take care of a toddler. Maybe I’ll get to work on my own art of doing stuff in 5-10 years when we’ve had our fill of kids and they’re all in school and Hubs is making Bank (with a capital “B”) so that I can stay at home and eat bon-bons build a deck or rip up floor to lay down fresh tile all day.

Anyway, before I got off track, I was telling you about my latest obsession, The Art of Doing Stuff. So this week, Karen took a vacation from blogging, and to keep her readers interested for those of us come back daily, she set up a “Coop Cam” in her (self-built) chicken coop in her back yard. Though the feed is incredibly slow (as in, one second the chickens will be there, and all of a sudden they’ll disappear), it’s still incredibly addictive. And now, for your own obsession viewing pleasure: Karen’s Coop Cam (if you’re asked to put in a password, type guest—all lowercase).

Day 1

Okay, so in the inaugural post of 2013, this blog that I read, Modern Parents Messy Kids, suggested the 30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge as a lovely idea for a New Year's resolution, and I signed up. Working at healthcare organization, the coworkers around me are for the most part incredibly healthy and exercise regularly. I've been hearing a lot about green smoothies lately from them, from my daughter's organic lifestyle homesteading school, and even from friends. I thought I would give it a whirl. This is Day 1 for me, though I think it's technically supposed to be Day 2 of the challenge. (I guess they took January 1 off the challenge because who wants to drink a smoothie when you're hungover, right?)

Last night, in preparation, I went to the Farmer's Market and bought two bags of organic spinach leaves, eight bananas, and then bought a huge bag of mixed frozen fruit at the grocery store. The Beginner's Luck recipe actually calls for frozen mango, which I couldn't find, and pineapple, which I hate, so I substituted the frozen mixed fruit (which contains mango, peaches strawberries, pineapple, and grapes) for both the pineapple and mango. The recipe makes enough for two smoothies, so I poured half in a cup with a lid and straw, and poured the rest into a water bottle, which I put in the fridge at the office. I must say that the smoothie is quite tasty! We shall see if it gives me more energy as claimed. Right now I've just finished my smoothie and am having a cup of Green Tea Kombucha, and I am sorely missing my coffee.

Oh, well. Here's to healthy living!

Update: After having my smoothie at 8am, I was hungry by about 9:45am. I drank some water, which helped, had my lunch smoothie around 1pm, and it was a larger portion than the one I had for breakfast. It's now nearly 4:30pm, and I'm doing okay... Going to get more water though!