Menu Planning

So every Sunday I sit down and menu plan. It's not an option, it helps both our budget and my sanity! If I don't have much time I will just pick some of the old faithful recipes we tend to have frequently. If I have more time I will look for some new recipes in magazines or online.

I've gotten into the rhythm of cooking with 3 little ones, however my mornings are much more rushed than they used to be so if something needs started early in the day or thawed I often don't even give it a thought until the kiddos are down for their naps at 1. So I'm going to try to type out my menu plan on Sundays and type in some notes of when to start thawing or soaking something. We will see how this goes!

Monday - Cobb Salads
Notes: Start hard boiled eggs and chicken broth at lunch time

Tuesday - Chicken, rice and veggie in crock pot
Notes: Put dinner in crock pot in the am
Grind and soak flour for muffins

Wednesday -Chicken salad sandwiches and pasta salad (from Kiwi Mag.)


Thursday - Garlic lime shrimp with corn and black bean salad (from Kiwi Mag)
Notes: Grind and soak flour for pancakes

Friday - Tacos
Notes: Thaw beef in the am

Helpful Hands

How many people does it take to change the diaper of a 1 week old?

In our house, a minimum of 3 :)

Jack gets the wipes, Soraya gets the diaper, mommy gets the baby.
Soraya undoes the tabs, Jack hands mommy a wipe, mommy has clean up duty.
Soraya opens the new diaper, mommy places under baby, Soraya secures the new diaper in place.
Jack throws away the dirty diaper and runs back in the room yelling "I did it!"

I'm loving everyone's willingness to help and the joy it brings them to help take care of their baby sister.

My little underwear model

Jack was wearing some Spiderman undies the other day and he looked so cute I thought I'd take a few pics. Who knew he would be such the underwear model :)

Macaroni and Cheese to Feed a Crowd

Macaroni and Cheese
From Maureen Diaz in Wholesome Home Cooking

2 lbs brown rice elbow macaroni, cooked
1 c. soft butter
1 c. arrowroot flour
1/4 c. dry mustard
2 Tbs sea salt
1/2 gallon raw milk
40 oz raw milk cheese, Shredded

Drain the pasta and put in large bowl. Add soft butter, mix well. Combine arrowroot, mustard, salt and 2 cups milk. Add rest of milk, then pour into the pasta. Mix together well, then add cheese. Divide into pans, freeze in portions or bake at 350 for 35 minutes. (It is recommended to to half bake what will be frozen.)

I'm posting this for my sister who is searching for a good homemade macaroni and cheese recipe. This is a fabulous meal to make just before having a baby as it makes 4 9x13 pans of mac and cheese! So eat one and freeze 3 for post baby meals.

Thinking of...

Warmth ~Sunshine~ Backyard

Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

Sometimes in the midst of a snow storm you just feel like baking. Why is that? My mother called me for a healthier blueberry muffin recipe. So I thought I would share it with everyone, incase someone else feels like making blueberry muffins too! I'm now thinking about whipping up a batch myself!

Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

Beat in a large bowl:
2 eggs
1/2 c olive oil

Add in and beat:
1 1/4 c sucanat
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c sour cream or plain yogurt

Slowly add in and beat:
2 c spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Stir in:
1 c blueberries

Bake on 375 for:
25 minutes - frozen berries
20 minutes - fresh berries

Yield:12 Muffins

Christmas Morning

This Christmas was the first year we woke up in our own home on Christmas morning! So I thought I should at least document with some pictures :) We had a lovely quite morning where Soraya enjoyed opening presents and getting things out of her stocking. Jack was pretty busy and preoccupied with other things...so Soraya got to open his presents as well :)

Sweet Potato Souffle

Here is one of my new favorite recipes! It's great for the holidays, so I thought I would post it here to share (and so that I don't lose it!!)

Sweet Potato Souffle (from allrecipes.com and edited by me :)

Ingredients
3 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon white sugar (I use maple syrup instead)
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup white sugar (I use maple syrup instead)
1 cup heavy cream
5 eggs
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Bake sweet potatoes in the oven at 375 for a few hours, until soft.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a 2 quart souffle dish. Sprinkle dish with 1 tablespoon maple syrup, shaking dish to evenly coat bottom and sides.
Place the sweet potatoes into the bowl of a kitchenaid mixer. Add the butter, 3/4 cup maple syrup, heavy cream, eggs, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Process until mixture is smooth. Pour into prepared souffle dish.
Bake the sweet potato mixture in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Bake the sweet potato mixture until edges are slightly browned, about 40 minutes more. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Break Dancing Jack

The Yummiest Pumpkin Pie

We've been making many many pumpkin foods as of late. But our favorite is for sure this pumpkin pie recipe!!

Filling (from The Pumpkin Cookbook)
1 pumpkin, about 1 1/2 pounds
1 cup cream
2 eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup
4 tbs spelt flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Cook the pumpkin. I cut it in half and bake in a glass baking dish, face down in a bit of water. It takes about an hour on 350. Once pumpkin is cooked, scoop out seeds and throw away. Then scoop the flesh away from the skin and process in a food processor, blender or I sometimes just use my kitchen aid mixer.

2. In a bowl combine pumpkin, cream, eggs, maple syrup, flour and spices and beat until evenly combined.

For the crust I use the Incredibly Good and Easy Pie Crust from Wholesome Homecooking.
1 1/4 c spelt flour
1/8 c maple syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 c butter (I have accidentally doubled the butter before..talk about fabulous!)
2 oz cream cheese

In a bowl, whisk together flour, sweetener and salt. In a mixer, beat butter and cream cheese together well, scraping sides of bowl once or twice. Add flour mixture to butter/cheese mixter in mixer bowl. Combine at medium low until crumbly, like coarsse cornmeal. Scrape down bowl and mix at medium high until dough forms large clumps, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough to a greased pie plate. Pat out with the palm of your hand evenly. Distribute up the sides of the plate.

Pour in pumpkin mixture. Bake on 400 for 30 minutes.

We like to buy some heavy whipping cream, whip it in the mixer then add to the pie before eating :) Enjoy!!

Cookies

Soraya's big birthday bash is next week. I can't believe she is 3!!

She is super excited. She had to make it through Jack, Mommy and Gus' birthday parties before getting to hers. We took her to a party store to pick out her plates. Going in she said she wanted Blues Clues. But after considering Little Einsteins, she chose Cinderella. Just could resist :)

So everytime I ask her what she wants to eat at her party she says "a cookie" which sounds a lot like turkey. Soraya hasn't ever been much of a cake fan, so we are going with it.

Her birthday is on Wednesday so we are having our neighbors over with their 3 girls, Maysun, Adelaide, and Imogene. We are having a taco bar and the much requested peanut butter cookie (without any refined sugars or flours of course :)

Then on Saturday all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are coming up for a grand birthday brunch with a giant chocolate chip cookie (no refined flours or sugars once again :)

So here are some pics of us practicing our cookie making :)

Apple Orchard

I took the kids to an apple orchard a few days ago. We went with a friend Julie and her son Trevor. We walked up the the older gentleman in charge, each of us with a one year old on our hip, me holding Soraya's hand and Julie being 8 months pregnant. So the gentleman just looked at us...so I said, "We are wondering about the pick your own apples" and he just looked at us quite perplexed...so I said, "Can we pick our own apples?" And he gaves us a concerned look again and asked how we thought we'd pick our own with the babies around (meanwhile, there are tons of already picked apples on the table behind him). I said, "oh, we will figure it out thats no problem. We have strollers and back packs..we are good...so how do we pick our own apples.

So the man gave us our bags and proceeded to explain which trees were ready to be picked. They had Johnathon apples, the best for applesauce making, and Ira red, red delicious, and yellow delicious.

We had a wonderful time picking apples. After awhile Jack was down walking around, getting covered in the dew covered freshly cut grass, as you can see in the picture he dropped his apple quite a few times :) Soraya loved it and didn't want to leave (as usual). After awhile Jack was down walking around, getting covered in the dew covered freshly cut grass, as you can see in the picture he dropped his apple quite a few times :)

The next day we had apples fried in butter with cinnamon for breakfast and applesauce as a snack. Tonight will be an apple crisp per Chad's request :)

My Man

I don't really have much to say...nor much time to write anymore. But all I can say is it just doesn't get any cuter that this :)

The best little girl a mommy could ask for

I have the absolute best little girl a mommy could ask for. I had terrible neck pain the last few days, went to the chiropracter and was feeling better. Took the kids to the YMCA today, and while there it felt like I got a pinched nerve in my neck. My vision got all blurry and then came the headache.

We got home and everyone fed and I said let's go upstairs Soraya and get Jack ready for his nap. She said, then I can watch Sesame Street! I said, well actually you are going to go night-night when Jack does so that mommy can lay down too. I have a terrible headache. She said ok. Once upstairs she says, "mommy, if your neck hurts you should go back to the doctor. You know who will be there? Colin's daddy and he will make your head feel all better." (Our good friend Colin's dad is our chiropractor)

So I proceed to go in all the bedrooms (including mine) and shut the windows and close the blinds. I hear Soraya in her room say to Jack, "It's night night time buddy." She then starts cleaning up all of her toys. Jack pulled one back off the shelf and she got upset. So I went and got Jack and told him we were going to clean up his toys then he was going to bed. Then next thing I know I hear Soraya yell, "Night night mommy!" And she closes her door and hops in bed! I put Jack in bed then checked on her and sure enough she was in bed falling asleep.

What a darling! Some times I don't think I deserve such an wonderful daughter :)

BFF

Soraya's BFF, Willow is moving to Costa Rica in two days. We are having a farwell open house at our place tomorrow evening for everyone to stop in and bid the Hendersons farewell. Soraya is sad...but doesn't really understand what is going on and where Costa Rica really is. I am sad for her, but I know they will be back in a year or 5 and can resume their friendship.

I am sad for myself, as Jess and I are really good friends and spent a lot of time together...especially since she lived a block away. The dynamics of our relationship is changing drastically but the nature of our relationship will remain the same. We are partakers in the Life of Christ. We are members of the Body of Christ and therefore relate to one another in Spirit and Truth...a change in physical location can change none of that.

End of Summer

Well...frankly...I haven't felt like blogging much latley. Maybe it is because I feel the end of summer drawing near and am trying to soak up the last bits of it. So here are some summer fun pics...

Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

We threw a little graduation party for Chad this past weekend while at the lake. Chad picked the dessert he wanted me to make for him and he picked Sour Cream Blueberry Cake. Despite this being a healthy cake, it recieved rave reviews (and my mom asked me to send her the recipe) So here is the recipe:

Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

Mix, then set aside to sprinkle over top before baking:

1/2 c. sucanat

1 Tbs melted butter

In a seperate bowl:

1/2c. butter

1 c sucanat

1 egg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 c spelt flour

1 c sour cream

1 1/2 c blueberries

Cream butter and sucanat. Beat in egg. Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately. Stir in blueberries. Put in a well greased casserole size of cake pan. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

I doubled the recipe and used a 9 x 13 pan.

From the recipe book: Wholesome Home Cooking by Katie Stoltzfus

My Baby Boy

Happy Birthday Baby Buddy :) My little man turned 1 today.

Incredibly good and easy pie crust

Here is a fabulous tastey and easy pie crust I have been using. I really like it because you don't have to roll it out then get it off the counter with out tearing it...you just press it in the pie pan :) This is taken from Wholesome Home Cooking by Katie Stoltzfus. Favorite cookbook ever!

This recipe makes 2 crusts.

2 1/2 c sprouted spelt flour
1/4 c sucanat or maple syrup
1/2 tsp celtic sea salt

1 c soft, but still cool raw butter
4 oz organic cream cheese

In a bowl, whisk together flour, sweetener and salt. In a mixer, beat butter and cream cheese together well, scraping sides of bolw once or twice. Add flour mixture to butter/cheese mixture in mixer bowl. Combine at medium low until crumbly, like coarse cornmeal. Scrape down bowl and mix at medium high until dough forms large clumps, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough to 2 greased pie plates, pat out with palm of your hand evenly.

The Gorge

Well, after a rainy morning and a cranky Jack, I decided we needed a post afternoon nap excursion. So we packed a picnic dinner and headed out to The Gorge in Cuyogoga Valley National Park. We had never been thre before and thought it sounde like a nice adventure. Well, as soon as we go here we realized the trail leading to the gorge was 1. 3 miles. We knew the kids would never make it round trip. So we headed down the trail to the fishing dock. It wasn't too long of a walk and we arrived at the fishing dock. Soraya loved seeing all of the water!

After looking around for a bit we decided to head back toward the car to set up our picnic dinner. Everyone enjoyed their food. Jack had his favorite food, custard, and he just couldn't sit still!

After eating, Soraya wanted to see the fishing dock one more time so we put Jack in the backpack this time and took one final stroll. It was a fun adventure and when the kids are a little older we will certainly take the long hike to the Gorge!