Mango, Berry and Banana Smoothie

Mango, Berry and Banana Smoothie

I thought that when my kids got older that my life would get easier. Boy was I wrong. My youngest is in a phase where he seems to eat all day long. As soon as he eats he is hungry again. I spend half of my day making and feeding him meals and snacks. The other half of the day I spend cleaning up his crafts and creative projects. I love that he creates projects etc, I just could do without all the mess that it takes for his creations to take shape. The work doesn't end with my youngest. Getting my oldest up in the morning can be nearly impossible some mornings. He moves so slowly. I feel like I have to nag him from the time he gets up just to make sure that we get to the bus on time. Most mornings we have to run the last block in order not to be late. Then the homework in the evening involves complaining and whining. I really hate whining, it's like nails on a chalkboard. I've decided that life for a mother doesn't get easier as their kids grow, just more complicated.

Since my mornings are almost always rushed I try to have meals that are quick and easy to make. Smoothies are one of my favorite since I can drink them on the way to the bus stop to drop off my oldest. Last week I tried a new recipe for Mango, Berry and Banana Smoothie from Bon Appetit Magazine.

Mango, Berry and Banana Smoothie

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 5 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 2 servings. I made a number of changes to the original recipe. First, my youngest kept eating all the frozen mangos that I bought. Therefore, I ended up with only 1/4 cup of mangos. I froze my banana before adding to the smoothie, left out the yogurt and added stevia. I found the smoothie as written was a little too thick so I added additional coconut water.

Mango, Berry and Banana Smoothie

I am a huge smoothie fan. This smoothie was a nice change of pace, it had more of a tropical flavor than other smoothies I had tried before. It was too thick as written, my blender didn't want to even move. In order to make the recipe work I added additional coconut water. I think if I made the recipe again I would try it with pineapple. Pineapple and coconut are delicious together and would work very well with this recipe.

For the recipe go to Mango, Berry and Banana Smoothie. 

Strawberry Champagne Jam

Strawberry Champagne Jam

I have a problem sitting still, I always have. My husband laughs at how many projects I have going on at any given time. As soon as I finish one project I'm already planning five more. Right now I am working on three craft projects and two home improvement projects. My youngest has decided to start his own craft project so that he can work alongside me, it's pretty cute. While I always have lots of projects going on, I am horrible about writing things out and making lists. Grocery lists I'm great about, but not cleaning, chore charts etc. My mother was list obsessed, she had lists that had baby lists. I have a basket, all the things that I need for my various projects are in that basket. When the basket is empty it's time for another project. The basket is rarely empty though, I prefer the chaos of having many projects going on at one time.

For New Year's Eve my husband and I bought a bottle of champagne. Then we fell asleep at 10 o'clock and never saw midnight. For Valentine's Day we opened the bottle, but each of us only drank a small glass. Since neither of us are big fans of champagne I decided to try a new recipe for Strawberry Champagne Jam with the leftovers.

Strawberry Champagne Jam

This recipe has 5 ingredients. It takes one hour of total time, all of which is active and makes 6 cups of jam. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I increased the sugar to 2 cups. Since I was using cava, which is very dry and not very sweet I thought the increase in sugar was needed. Second, I mashed the strawberries with a potato masher. I like my jam to be full of fruit and mashing the berries helps in this regard. Finally instead of simmering for 15 minutes and then a 5 minute rapid boil, I boiled the jam until it hit the jam point (which I tested on a plate in the fridge). Then I water bathed for 10 minutes. I ended up with 4 small jars of jam.

Strawberry Champagne Jam

The taste of this jam is sweet, but with a different undertone than regular strawberry jam. The champagne makes a nice change from regular jam and is a good way to use leftover champagne. My kids enjoyed the jam with homemade buttermilk biscuits, I ate the jam with coconut flour bread. Both ways it was delicious and something I would make again.

Strawberry Champagne Jam

For the recipe go to Strawberry Champagne Jam.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes Using Quinoa Flour

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes

Growing up once a year for my birthday my mom would buy a sheet cake from the Italian bakery. I would pretty much eat the entire sheet cake. I loved cake, and the Italian bakery sheet cake was delicious. My love affair with cake started with those birthday sheet cakes and only grew stronger once I started baking during my teen years. I would scour over cookbooks looking for new cake and cupcake recipes. Flash forward to a few years ago and my cake eating life was brought to a halt. I found out that I could no longer have gluten and I was devastated. Not only because I couldn't have pasta or bread, but because cake was taken away from me. I began trying various gluten free cake recipes using all purpose gluten free flour and pretty much hated all of them. Finally I came to the conclusion that I prefer straight flours, not store bought blends. Adding 10 different ingredients for one flour just isn't something that my taste buds seem to love. Now I try to use a variety of straight flours, some of which I have found I love and others I have never bought again. This week I tried a new recipe for Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes from the Bob's Red Mill site.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes Using Quinoa Flour

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 12 cupcakes. I made a few changes to the original recipe. First I used muffin liners that I got on clearance after Valentine's Day. I love when I only have to pay a few cents for liners. Second, I found that my baking time was a little longer than the recipe, 25 minutes total. Make sure to watch the cupcakes closely, they will go from done to burnt very quickly.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes Using Quinoa Flour

My kids loved these cupcakes. I was going to frost them, but my kids loved them plain. The fact that they ate the cupcakes without frosting says a lot since they are huge frosting fans. I was worried that the taste of the quinoa flour would be too strong, but they tasted chocolatey with no after taste. My husband thought that the quinoa flour tasted like peanut butter, which he really liked. Overall, these cupcakes were very popular with my family and I would make them again.

For the recipe go to Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes. 

Winter Vegetable Dal

Winter Vegetable Dal

I want my kids to fail. That's right I don't want my kids to succeed at everything they try. Why? Failure is one of the most important lessons we should be imparting to our kids. Let me provide a little background to my reasoning. My son came home from school last week and informed me that everyone got a ribbon for participating in a school event. Great, so everyone wins for doing nothing. I know that sounds a little harsh, but good old fashioned competitiveness is not a bad thing. I failed a lot growing-up. I tried basketball, softball, gymnastics and I was horrible at all of them. Then I discovered swimming and I was great at it. The pleasure I got from succeeding was that much better since I knew what it was like to be horrible at something. In college I had a professor inform me that I didn't understand anything about the concept of 'national identity' and that I should avoid a degree in English. I ended up getting my BA in English Literature and wrote my master's thesis on national identity and geography. However, if I hadn't done horribly in that class I might have had a very different life. We remember the times we fail, we need those failures to become the adults we are. It seems that we are now teaching our children that failure should be avoided in order to save our children the pain. Yes failure hurts, but the success that eventually comes is that much sweeter for having the fought our way back. So yes I want my children to fail, I will comfort them from the pain and cheer them on when they find a way to succeed. It's a part of growing-up.

My family rarely eats out, less than once a month. However, we all love various ethnic foods so I try to re-create as many dishes at home as I can. Last week I tried a new Winter Vegetable Dal recipe from the January/February 2014 issue of Eating Well magazine.

Winter Vegetable Dal

 

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 35 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I used a bay leaf instead of curry leaves. Curry leaves are very hard to find in my area and I didn't want to have to go searching for them. I thought that I had cumin seeds in my cupboard, but wasn't able to find them when I made the recipe so I substituted ground cumin instead. I cut my potatoes small, but I still found that my dal took longer than the recipe suggest for the vegetables to fully cook, approximately 10 additional minutes.

Winter Vegetable Dal

My husband and I enjoyed this recipe. It was mild enough that my kids loved it while still being flavorful enough for adults. If you like your dishes spicier you can add a small amount of crushed red pepper. The leftovers of this dish re-heated well and it tasted great over brown rice.

For the recipe go to Winter Vegetable Dal.

Black Bean Brownies

Black Bean Brownies 

My youngest signed up for kindergarten on Friday. He was excited for weeks leading up to the day, went into the school and then panicked. My normally talkative and outgoing child turned mute. He did write his letters and play with blocks while I filled out the paper work, but refused to actually talk. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but since I home school him for pre-k I am always very self conscious. It doesn't help that when you walk in the door they ask you if they are in pre-k and I was the only mommy that said he was learning at home. Now I have a master's degree, in our state I am allowed to home school through high-school. However, everyone else sends their kid to pre-k. It hasn't held my kids back in school. My oldest went into kindergarten and was already a grade ahead in reading and is now two years ahead in math. I believe strongly in teaching at home and having school being a reinforcement of things already taught through workbooks and everyday life lessons. However, I still feel judged since everyone else makes different decisions. I have had to defend my decisions so many times to other women that have made different choices and feel the need to explain to me why their decisions were better. Luckily since he starts kindergarten next year I won't have to explain my home-school pre-k choices any longer which will be a nice change. 

I have been experimenting with dessert recipes using beans in the last couple of weeks. Last week I tried a new recipe for Black Bean Brownies from the Taste of Home website. 

Black Bean Brownies 

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I followed the original recipe with only a few changes. I did not have chocolate chips in the house and I didn't want to run to the store so I made the recipe without the chocolate chips. It made the brownies less sweet, but my kids ate them happily with the reduced sugar. I found that my total cooking time was a little longer than the recipe, my total baking time was approximately 30 minutes. 

Black Bean Brownies 

Without the chocolate chips added these black bean brownies are rich, but not overly sweet. My two boys prefer chocolate that isn't overly sweet, so they loved them. I have tried the recipe with the chocolate chips added and it's also good, just sweeter. Either way works depending on what you have in your cupboard. I love that the brownies have black beans instead of butter, it really cuts down on the fat. The total recipe only has 3 tablespoons of canola oil, which could also be substituted for virgin coconut oil or even applesauce depending on your dietary needs. 

For the recipe go to Black Bean Brownies. 

Simple Whole Wheat Bread

Simple Whole Wheat Bread

I am attempting to teach my kids to pick-up after themselves. Yesterday I had the unfortunate luck of stepping on a Lego my kids had left out. This led to me jumping up and down on one foot and waking up my oldest. Those little Legos are pretty much evil. They get right into the middle of your foot and stick there so you keep stepping on them while screaming that you stepped on it in the first place. What I really don't understand is how my kids have an entire bedroom, but all of their stuff ends up in the living room. Even if they dump the toys out on their bedroom floor they somehow migrate into my space and then I step on something. I wish it was just my boys, except my husband seems to have the same problem with his shoes. I find 2-3 pairs of shoes everyday that my husband has something left in the living room, oftentimes with his socks stuck inside. So this week my boys are learning about personal responsibility. I refuse to keep stepping on toys everywhere I step.

Simple Whole Wheat Rolls

Since I am the only one in my family that eats gluten free my kids go through periods where they really want bread, and pancakes and muffins. Pretty much anything with wheat flour. So today I let them have a day of gluten. I made pancakes and bread. My oldest came home from school very happy and told me it was the best day ever. Normally I follow the same bread recipe, but today I decided to try something new. I tried a recipe for Simple Whole Wheat Bread from Allrecipes.com.

Simple Whole Wheat Rolls

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 3 hours of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 36 servings. I made a number of changes to the original recipe. First instead of making the recipe for 3 loaves, I reduced the amount to 24 servings and made half the dough as rolls and the other half as a loaf of bread. I found that my bread and rolls took longer to brown than the recipe stated, I left them in for an additional 10 minutes, so 40 minutes total. I like the tops of my bread to be nicely browned, especially for whole wheat. My rising time was an hour for the first rise and two hours for the second. Since it's winter my second rise always takes longer than in the summer when the house is much warmer. Just make sure that the dough rises about an inch over the top of the pan and it's ready to go in the oven.

Simple Whole Wheat Bread

My kids ate almost the whole batch of rolls within a couple of hours. They really loved the rolls. My husband ate the bread and thought that it was nice bread to have with a slather of butter. The bread is a little sweet since it has honey, which is perfect for rolls. I might make these rolls again for Easter, they are a nice way to use whole wheat flour in rolls while still being kid friendly. Definitely a recipe I will use again.

For the recipe go to Simple Whole Wheat Bread.

Smokey Weeknight Chili with Homemade Chili Powder

Smokey Weeknight Chili

My husband thinks that I rearrange our furniture every 3-4 months to amuse myself. While I do enjoy moving things around in the house, the main reason I tend to rearrange rooms is to make space for the new things we accumulate. With four people in the house we end up with a lot of new things over the course of the year. Most things I buy second hand, clearanced or up-cycled. Every three or four months I go through the house and donate any items that we no longer use or I can't find in a way to re-purpose. Yesterday I spent the day moving a bookcase out of my kid's room and re-arranging the remaining furniture in their bedroom. Now they have a large play area and I have a bookcase that I will paint and make look like new for the living room. I already found oopsie paint at the home improvement store for 2 dollars. I love oopsie paint, it's a great way to buy high quality paint for very little money. The paint I found was originally 40 dollars, so 2 dollars was a great deal! The best part of rearranging furniture is watching my husband try to figure out where everything has been moved to. It always makes me smile.

I have been making a lot of soups and chili the last month due to the cold weather. It has been a very cold winter and when the weather is far below freezing I prefer food that is warm and comforting. Last week I tried a new recipe for Smokey Weeknight Chili from the February 2014 issue of Better Homes and Gardens.

Smokey Weeknight Chili

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active. I followed the original recipe pretty closely. The only change I made was to make my own chili powder. I prefer homemade chili powder to store bought, it tastes better and I can adjust the amount of heat for my family's tastes. Here is the recipe I used:

4 tablespoons Ancho chili powder

2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
4 teaspoons paprika (I use smoked)
1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoons black pepper

It took minutes to make and was really great tasting. I also made my beans from scratch. I made my beans in the crock pot in a big batch and then measured out the equivalent amount of beans (about a cup and a half for a 15 ounce can). 

This is a very easy recipe to put together. You can substitute black or kidney beans if you don't have chickpeas (or just prefer the taste). It's also an inexpensive meal since it's vegetarian and is even cheaper if you make the beans from scratch. It has 15 grams of protein per serving and only 6 grams of fat so it's a nice all around meal. My family liked the chili with a bit of sour cream since my homemade chili powder is a little on the spicier side. 

For the recipe go to Smokey Weeknight Chili.