snack bags!

I try to make most of my posts for a general audience, but this one is especially for parents.  We've tried a few things lately with our kids that have worked SO well! so I felt like I needed to share. :)

Problem: It's snack time! and I never know how much food to give my kids.  Whether we're talking crackers, nuts, dried fruit, ... - Too little and they're hungry again in five minutes.  Too much and they won't eat dinner (and I'm feeling guilty about giving them a pound of Chex Mix).  "Little Boy, I'm sorry that my handful came out looking like more on her napkin than yours."  

BUT They never complain about the amount of snack in a pre-packaged bag, I noticed one day.

Solution: Snack bags!

The day I gave them pre-packaged snacks and enjoyed the heavenly sound of no complaining, I went home and got out my snack-sized Ziplock bags, kitchen scale, and our boxes and bags of snacks, and I started separating.  I measured out bags according to the serving size on the nutrition labels (usually around 30 g / 1 oz).  I ended up with around 50 baggies of snacks.  I put all the bags in a designated drawer in the kitchen, along with any granola bars and "official" snack packs we had.  I explained to the kids that some bags look like more full, but that they all had the exact same weight - some foods are just heavier than others.  

what's in our snack drawer right now

Sometimes I surprise them by putting in two baggies of chips or M&Ms, but it's usually crackers, dried fruit, or nuts.

We also have a snack box in the fridge that has string cheese and baggies of carrots, apples, other produce.  Sometimes I let them have one from both the drawer and the fridge - crackers and cheese or apples and peanut butter, for example.  The kids are allowed to eat produce basically anytime so it's handy to have that cut up (especially if it's something like cucumbers or broccoli).

We fancy.

We have snack time at about 3:00 every day.  When that time comes, I no longer have to think of an answer to the question of what snack will be.  I don't dread the whine that comes when I give an answer someone doesn't like.  I just tell them to grab a snack bag!  And everyone's happy.  They're excited to choose their own, and I'm excited that I don't have to choose anyone's but mine.  We literally have never had a complaint about portion size, either.  When it's gone, it's gone and snack time's over.  If you're still hungry, good!  That means you'll be ready when it's dinnertime. :)

This has also worked great for when we're going to be away from home at snack time.  Sometimes I have baggies in the car, but usually I just tell everyone to grab one before we leave.  So much more convenient than passing around a whole box!  Even when we went on a car trip recently, we just brought a bunch of baggies.  

The adults in our family follow the same portions, by the way.  It's been great for helping us not eat a TON mindlessly.  I wondered if we'd fizzle out after a week, but we still love them as much as we did on Day 1!  This is definitely a trick we'll be sticking with.

Part 2: CANDY

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Life isn’t to be found in holding on and looking back, but in letting go and looking forward.

Life Goes On

Philip Gulley

Johnson-style Nanaimo Bars

Yesterday was Canada Day, so Joel and I celebrated like we always do - poutine for dinner, Nanaimo Bars for dessert, and watching a show that teases about the differences between Canadians and Americans.  To my dismay, however, I learned that most of my friends had never tried a Nanaimo Bar and / or didn't know what they were!  So here, friends, is the recipe I use.  I've never tried an authentic Nanaimo Bar, but I've made so many substitutions, I'm sure they no longer taste authentic.  :)  They do taste delicious, though.  

This is a refrigerated no-bake bar-style cookie... kind of.  The actual prep time for each layer is very short, but there's about an hour and a half of setting time.  The tiny parenthetical asides are my personal notes, learned in the process of making these. :)

Start with a pan (I use 9" round) lined with foil or plastic wrap.  It's much easier to cut and serve these if you can remove the whole thing from the pan.

Please don't judge me.  I am NOT a food photographer.

Bottom layer:

1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature (Salted butter works, too.  Also, since you're melting it, it doesn't need to be room temp.)

1/4 c. sugar

5 T cocoa powder

1 egg, beaten

1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 10 crackers or most of a store-bought graham cracker crust:) (For gluten-free, I'd sub in quick oats. This ingredient is mostly for texture anyway.)

1/2 c. finely chopped almonds (If your almonds have freezer burn, finely chopped pecans are also delicious.)

1 c. coconut (We don't like coconut, so we use quick oats instead.)

Melt butter, sugar, and cocoa powder together.  Slowly add to beaten egg.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients.  (I do that step with a spatula in the pan I'm going to use.)  Press firmly into ungreased pan.  (Eat a forkful.)  Refrigerate.  

Hm.  It looks like I snuck some Heath bars into the bottom layer last year.  Yum!

Middle layer:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (Again, salted is fine.)
3 T whipping cream (I couldn't tell any difference when I used milk.)
2 T custard powder (or vanilla pudding powder)
2 c. powdered sugar

Cream all ingredients together and spread onto the bottom layer.  Refrigerate 30-60 minutes (so it stays separate from the top layer.)

I cover it with plastic wrap during setting time so it doesn't absorb any funky fridge odors.

Top layer:

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate (2/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips) (REALLY USE SEMI-SWEET, even if you're a slave to milk chocolate when baking.)
2 T unsalted butter (Salted is good.)

Melt together.  When cool but still liquid, pour over other two layers.  Refrigerate at least one hour.

Enjoy!  Really - I think it's impossible not to.

(I told you I made a lot of substitutions:)

April

Hola!

Did you think my May goal was to give up blogging?  Guess again!  :)

First, let me address my goal for Lent, since that started last month but finished in April.  I did it!  No eating out because I didn't feel like cooking!  We still ate out, but when I didn't feel like cooking, we ate leftovers or salad or I learned a new recipe, and it went really well.  I'm hoping to keep that goal going.  Eating out's expensive!

Now, for my March goals:

1. Say personal prayer before bed.

2. Exercise every weekday.

Say personal prayer before bed.

I used to do this all the time, no problem.  Somewhere along the way, though, I fell out of the habit.  I don't know when.  I know it got more difficult when I started sleeping in beds kept on cinder blocks or that were otherwise tall, because my favorite praying position for personal prayers is against the bed.  With a tall bed, I can't reach the top when I'm on knees and it's uncomfortable.  Not less comfortable; uncomfortable.  Anyway, the important thing is, this was a good goal for me.  I wasn't 100% at it, but it was good for me to recognize the situation and consciously work to correct it.  

Exercise every weekday.

Wow!  I give a lot of credit to those of you who do this.  It's hard to make the time!  The easiest time, of course, is early in the morning, before I have time to procrastinate it.  That's also the hardest time, what with getting up early.  :)  Some days I exercised before work, others after, and many days I rode my bike to and from work to get it in then.  It became more difficult when someone else in my household with a much different schedule wanted to join in, because then I had to choose between actually doing it and trying to figure out a time every day that would work for both of us.  The times that were convenient for me (and that guaranteed I'd get it in) weren't convenient for that person.  I learned I'm better at exercising independently (unless there's group that meets every day at the same time and that time works for my schedule).  

I'd say I was about 85% on each of these goals.  I do have to say, though, that I feel a lot better.  It was interesting - I didn't expect that to be a benefit of Lent or Goal #2.  I kind of hoped I'd see a difference, but I didn't expect to feel one.  But less fast food - even though we still had some - and more exercising - even though I often did the bare minimum :) - made me feel better.  Better energy- / health-wise and better about myself.  So that was cool. 

As far as May goes, here's what I've decided.  I said in January that "My hope is that doing each mini goal for a month will help make it a habit, but even if none of them turn into habits, I'll still be on track."  I since have amended my views.  I want these goals to become habits.  During the month of May, then, I'll be working on doing all the goals I've done until this point.  It will be hard, but I've been trying to anyway, so I'm hoping that helps.  It will be a lot to remember, though... Wish me luck!  :)

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“But Hogwarts is hidden,” said Hermione in surprise.  “Everyone knows that…well, everyone who’s read Hogwarts, A History, anyway.” 

“Just you, then,” said Ron.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

GREEN

Remember how I told you we're (I'm) kind of obsessed with the Olympics at our house?

Well, the same thing goes for St. Patrick's Day.  Only emphasis on the "I'm" - Joel's celebration of St. Patrick's Day is to purposely NOT wear green.  (Don't worry, he always gets pinched.)

Also, do you remember this book?

I thought so!  Eating green eggs and ham on St. Patrick's Day has been my family's tradition for my entire life, so now it's Joel and my family tradition, too!  Well, mostly my tradition.  But watch out, world!  When we have kids, our house will be filled with green eggs and ham!

It's so fun, though.  All growing up, my mom went to great lengths to make sure everything we ate on St. Patrick's Day was green - our water, milk, butter, sandwiches (green bread and green tuna), etc.  It makes everyone jealous when you show up in the cafeteria with a green sandwich - ask any of my classmates - and it's also really exciting to prepare for.  Last night we had some family over for dinner, so in true My-maiden-name fashion, we had green everything!  Normal-colored juice and clementines for those guests who were wary of so much green, and green for everyone else.  

Green eggs, green ham, green toast (I made bread and dyed the dough green), green butter, milk with green food coloring next to it (Joel asked that I not dye the entire gallon, so we dyed our individual glasses of milk), and pie made with green apples.  Yum!  

For those of you whose St. Patrick's Day is corned beef and cabbage,

you're missing out.

___________________________________________

“He is wanting paying for his work, sir.”

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

blue, black, red, yellow, green, and Sochi

dinner

We're kind of obsessed with the Olympics at our house.  Every two years for two weeks, I give myself license to watch as much TV as I want.  The Olympics are the reason we have channels on our television.  (Honestly - Last Olympics, we couldn't get the antennae to work and only got the Spanish soap opera channel.  We got Dish purely to not miss the Olympics.)  Check out our Olympic-themed meal!  I made this for the Opening Ceremony.  What to do for the Closing?  Something that looks like a person weeping?  :)

dessert: fruit pizza with blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, bananas, & grapes

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"The idea of being taught consideration by a man who had just blasted away

half his living room wall seemed to be causing him intense suffering."

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

garbage

This week saw a big day for me!  Thursday was the first day I made something for dinner that was gross enough for me to not finish it.  It took me five years of cooking for myself for that to happen!  

That wasn't the only big thing, though.  Not only did I not finish my food, I also faced my fear of wasting food (which is a completely reasonable fear and one I will not be abandoning) and threw it and all the leftovers away.  Even though it was food.  BUT I knew neither of us would eat it, and it was either going to be thrown away tonight or in three weeks when I clean the fridge of rotted leftovers.  So I bit the bullet, trashed it, and it was actually kind of freeing!  I didn't even let myself feel guilty for it.  (It was pretty gross.)

I also learned an important lesson for the future - we typically don't really like meat that has been baked in juice.  Baked, not crockpotted.  A while ago we tried baked blueberry chicken - didn't love it.  Tonight's was baked cranberry pork - yuck.  But neither time was it about the taste - both tasted very good; it was all about texture.  I've learned if I want to make food like that, I need to cook the meat on the stove / grill, heat the sauce on the stove, and serve it like "meat and a sauce to dip it in or put on top," because then we'll eat and love it.  

(The only exception I can think of right now is baked cranberry chicken.  I looooove that stuff.)

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"All [a child] thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness.  After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterwards be quite the same boy."  - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

alisonism #15: my favorite cereal

I eat a lot of cereal.  I just grew up that way.  I love it! and it helped that my mom bought good kinds.  We weren't allowed to eat it all the time, though.  Milk was too expensive for all of us to eat cereal whenever we wanted.  When my parents would on temple trips or dates, it was so exciting when we got permission to have cereal for dinner.  We asked for it as a snack after school (and always got turned down) so often that my mom made a rule that we could have cereal for a snack on Fridays.  IT WAS AWESOME.  I still remember how excited I was when she made that rule.

This is my room at my parents' house.  If you look at the background in my closet, you can see how much cereal I had in there.  It was mostly full, but probably 10 or so boxes are gone. Also, there's a pantry shelf and two other closets with that much.

Anyway.  I have three top favorites.  There are others I like a lot, of course, but I don't think these three will ever be topped.

1.

Oh, Oreo O's.  The day you were discontinued was the day the music died.

It was momentarily resurrected when we found a box of you in my mom's stash, it's true,

but it died again when the box was all eaten.

Note: For those of you interested in getting me an awesome gift, Oreo O's are still sold (!!!!) in South Korea for an outrageous price.

2.

I looooove Cocoa Pebbles.  If these were ever discontinued, I would die.

They are, by far, the most delicious chocolate cereal (Oreo chocolate doesn't count as chocolate) and produce, by far, the most delicious chocolate milk.  Well, Cocoa Puffs milk is pretty good, too.  But I love Cocoa Pebbles.

And,

3.

Absolutely DELICIOUS.  I looooove blueberry morning!  I get excited just thinking about it!  The old version.  The new version, with its new "healthy" "rice flakes" or whatever the heck they are, is not as delicious as the old version.  It's still good, and they still have the dried blueberries just right.  But the old version is a cereal to get excited about.

Well, there you have it!  Coming in at #1, we have Oreo O's; at #2, Cocoa Pebbles; and at #3, Blueberry Morning.  When I was younger I might have said Cinnamon Toast Crunch and perhaps Rice Krispie Treats Cereal, but Cinnamon Toast Crunch is now just as good as many other cereals and I haven't seen Rice Krispie Treats Cereal in years.  Who knows, that one might still be a contender.

___________________________________________

"'Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?'  'Nothing, precious,' she said; 'they are the eyes a mother leaves behind to guard her children.'" - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

on top of spaghetti

I made homemade spaghetti sauce tonight!

It was very tasty.  I picked the tomatoes from our garden; blanched, peeled and cored them; and cooked them into some taaaasty marinara sauce.  There wasn't tons of extra, since our tomatoes are pretty tiny, but what extra there was will be frozen for another day.  Yum!  

(Sorry I don't have a picture - you'll just have to imagine it.)

Recipe:

A bunch of tomatoes, peeled and cored

1 onion, diced

1 can tomato sauce

1/3 cup chicken broth

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Pour all ingredients into a large pot and boil until thickened.

If your eaters don't like chunky tomatoes, 

pour into a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!

start wearing purple, wearing purple

Check out this sweet corn we got from Bountiful Baskets!

Yum!

Strawberry Days

There exists in a nearby city a fun little festival called Strawberry Days.

(Yes, this sign says "Straberry Days" instead of "Strawberry Days,"

but I didn't create it, and it was the best I could find.

You're just going to have to deal with it.)

I've heard that, every year, they give out free strawberries and cream,

but this year I learned that the cream is magical. 

Naturally, we decided to check it out.

On a pleasantly cool Tuesday evening, 

J, M, and I headed out to get some free strawberries and magic cream!

and also enjoy the free concert in the park.

The event started at 7:30, and we arrived around 8:00.

The band performing the free concert in the park was none other than The Beach Boys!

Just kidding.

They were probably about the same age, though,

only this group was performing other artists' music.

They were decent, but not worth the trip.  

No, we had come for the strawberries and cream.

Let's be honest - I was pretty much there for the cream.

There were approximately 1,000,000 people there, 

and as we followed the crowds to the strawberries and cream line,

we passed many people enjoying their magic dessert.

Then we got in line.

Only it turned out not to be the line for free strawberries and cream.

Unfortunately, it was the line for watching the crew clean off the tables,

for sadly,

all the strawberries and magic were gone.

After half an hour.

Wouldn't you think that a city that apparently produces enough strawberries to host a festival named after them would have enough that they'd last half an hour? Perhaps 45 minutes?

Alas. 

So we chose to skip out on the free concert and head over for some ice cream,

since it's probably close to magic cream.

J and I recently discovered a Maggie Moo's by our house

(and I loooooove Maggie Moo's, partly for nostalgic reasons and partly because it's delicious),

and that's where we went to satisfy our craving for magic.

When we arrived, we saw this taped to the door:

Was everything conspiring to keep us from achieving magical status?!

It was really quite disappointing.

I love Maggie Moo's.  Aside from the fact that I wanted ice cream, I was also really sad that this business I'd been so excited to see wasn't actually there.

We ended up settling on Coldstone, where I discovered Oatmeal Cookie Batter ice cream.

Although it was no magic cream,

it was still pretty good.

And it was a fun night spent adventuring with my husband and brother.

We'll probably try again next year. :)

gross...

My husband is so much braver than me! Look what he ate today!  (Look up khash, although if you have a weak stomach, you may be sorry you did.  Subtract the vodka from the meal and add in "lemonade with some herb in it" and you have Joel's breakfast!)

taken from Joel's own camera: "I ate one bite of this and choked it down."

"I ate this until I was full."  That green stuff is the "lemonade with some herb in it."

It turned out yummy!

Here's the post on "my" cooking blog, in case you're interested.


2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 tiny onion, quartered
2 gala apples, cut into slices
a couple dashes cinnamon
a couple tiny dashes all-spice
a couple splashes lemon juice

Serve on rice with some lime juice.

Make a "plate" for the chicken by laying one apple's worth of slices on the bottom of the crockpot.  Put chicken on top, followed by a "lid" of the second apple.  Dump in the can of cranberry sauce, followed by  a quarter of the onion in each corner of the crockpot.  Dash on the cinnamon, all-spice, and lemon juice.  I didn't even stir it!  Wait in anticipation to see if it turned out well...

RESULT:

Yum-ola!

crockpot

Trying something new tonight... hope it works out!

I'll put up the recipe if it does!

Strawberry and Chocolate Nachos

We made these Strawberry and Chocolate Nachos (from www.ourbestbites.com) to eat while watching the third Narnia movie tonight. All I have to say is, De-lici-ous.

Ingredients needed: tortillas, butter, cinnamon sugar, strawberries (or another kind of fruit that would be good with chocolate), chocolate

P.S. The Narnia movie was very good, too. I really like those movies a lot. Very well-made, besides having a good story.

Kinder Bueno

I love these.

It's a little packet of chocolate and wafer, and you think it's just going to be normal-tasting.

Put then you put it in your mouth and bite down

and all of a sudden,

 hazelnut-flavored cream floods your mouth

with delicious flavor.

And all you want to do is eat more

and more

and more.

But then you realize there are only eight squares in a package

so you go to Super Bodega and buy another one.

No-Bake Cookies

(recipe from allrecipes.com)
1 3/4 c. white sugar
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
4 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter
3 c. quick-cooking oats
1 tsp vanilla

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil... Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, vanilla, and oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened. 


We made these yesterday. Yum.  I'm glad no one seems to have ruined no-bake cookies with some kind of weird fruit (quick about me: I don't like it when people ruin perfectly good treats with fruit.) but I realized while I was eating a cookie tonight that if you were to ruin a delicious no-bake cookie with fruit, using orange extract might not be so bad.  Kind of like one of these:

And I suppose maybe, just maybe, raspberry may also be acceptable.  Not preferred, but acceptable.

But really, let's just leave them the way they should be - chocolate and peanut butter.  And thank you for leaving them that way thus far.

vegetables

That looks super good, don't you think?

And if I told you it was made out of a vegetable and not potatoes,

wouldn't you think, "Hey, what a cool way to get some

extra vegetables into our diet!"?

Because it does look super good.

Well, let me tell you what.

If you ever want to be disappointed in a recipe,

try making this.

alisonism #13: Gus, don't be a gooey chocolate chip cookie.

here

• I like chocolate chip cookies a lot. 
• My favorite part of a chocolate chip cookie is the part that doesn't actually have any chocolate chips in it. 
• --> I look for the cookies that barely have any chocolate chips in them. 
• I prefer milk chocolate to semi-sweet. 
• I say "se-my," not "se-mee."  In all cases - not just with semi-sweet chocolate chips. 
• I love "everything" cookies. I don't know what they're called; my mom just sends them to me sometimes and they seem like they have everything in them.  Nuts, m&ms, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, whatever. 
• I loooove oatmeal cookies! Not with chocolate chips in them. People always seem to think that when I say I love oatmeal cookies, I mean I love oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips in them, but no. Just regular oatmeal cookies. Sometimes the store-bought ones with the hard frosting on top. mmmm.
• When Carrie and I were living together, we invented a new kind of cookie.  Only, since Carrie gave up sugar for Lent that year and we still wanted to make them, we changed them to be called patties instead.  Oatmeal Craisin Patties.  They are so so delicious!  I would give you the recipe, but we're actually entering them in the Pillsbury Bake Off 2011, so... :) I promise - after 11:59 on April 18, you can have it.    
• When I make cookies, I let them cool on wax paper if I have any, but usually I don't so I use newspaper instead.  Joel thinks it's gross, and it probably is. But I do it anyway.

Pillsbury Bake Off 2011, here we come!

When we were roommates, Carrie and I invented a delicious kind of cookie.

This semester, we are entering it in the Pillsbury Bake Off.  

It's gonna be awesome.

mmm, crêpes

Fact: My husband is the best crêpe maker ever.

Last night was our Harry Potter 4 extravaganza.

To celebrate the French food that the house elves made the Beauxbatons students during

the Tri-Wizard Tournament, we decided to made crêpes as our HP4 food.

Now, add raspberries, chocolate chips, whipped cream, strawberries,

Nutella, powdered sugar, syrup, and a big cup of milk

to the fact that my husband is the best crêpe maker ever,

And you have one delicious crêpe-eating night.

Bonsoir!