Kale

I often think of myself as a pretty healthy person, I feel I cook fairly healthy and I think I eat fairly balanced. However, I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to trying new vegetables. I don't say I'm to picky until I start going down the list of vegetables I won't eat: squash, mushrooms, eggplant, onions, etc.. Every now and then I get inspired by a new recipe and find myself sampling something new. But outside of that one recipe I'm clueless how to cook this new vegetable.

A few months back I was craving Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscana and found a copy cat recipe for it online. The recipe I found called for "Kale". I had never cooked with Kale before and was unfamiliar with it's taste and texture. In the soup I found it to be DELICIOUS! I've since made the soup a handful of times, buying the large head of Kale sold at the store. However, outside of this recipe I don't know what to do with my Kale, and sadly my kale has gone bad before I've had time to finish the whole thing.

Right now I'm reading "The Jungle Effect" and I'm all inspired to go back to my roots (er...at least back to how Mom mom cooked when I was growing up) and start cooking and eating more healthfully.

Under the diet recipes recommended for Crete, Greece, I found an omelet recipe that called for...Kale!! I was so thrilled. I now have TWO recipes to cook with kale and both of them are FABULOUS!

I was thrilled to find I had all of these ingredients in my fridge this morning without needing to go to the market. If you want a super yummy omelet recipe that includes yummy kale...try this one!

Horta Omelet:

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups chopped kale (or swiss chard or spinach)

2 Tablespoons crumbled feta

3 or 4 eggs, lightly beaten

3 Tablespoons, kalamata olives, chopped

1 lemon wedge

saute garlic in olive oil until garlic is soft (not brown) add greens and stir till soft. Evenly distribute the greens on the bottom and then sprinkle with the feta, add eggs. Cook to your liking then top with olives and tiny bit of salt. After you serve squeeze a bit of lemon (really brings out the flavor) and enjoy with whole wheat toast or whatever you have. SO good!

Friday craft

Pretty much everything that Mother Lode posts I want to do with Jade. Fridays are "craft day" that I do with Jade and two of her friends. Having her friends there help me to make sure the craft happens instead of putting it off.

Last week we did Alphabet Rocks and this week we tried tracing and embroidering our hand prints. Now, I originally had planned a craft that involved paint and blocks and lots of mess, so last minute I decided to do the hand print craft. Because I didn't plan out this craft, we used regular fabric that I had on hand, and regular sewing thread instead of embroidery thread.

If you try this yourself, I would recommend using the correct fabric (I'm not sure what it's called but it has the little holes in it, like burlap) and embroidery thread.

Even still, we got the needed effect and Jade was VERY excited to try her "hand" at sewing. Hee, hee. Was that a funny pun? LOL

Craigslist find!

When Jade was around 5-6mons I got a used high chair at a garage sale for about $15. After she grew out of it I switched it for a booster seat and sold the high chair on Craigslist for $15. Now that Cutter is almost 6mon I decided it was time to find a high chair. I didn't think I'd be able to find something that was nice for $15...but I was wrong. Hurray for grandparents who buy extra high chairs for their grandkids and then need to get rid of them! LOL
Cutter seems to enjoy his new chair, happily munchin' on a teething biscuit and...
...trying to drink his water. LOL
Jade is also thrilled she doesn't have to share her booster seat quite yet, though she is a little worried about how messy Cutter gets when he feeds himself. hee, hee
my little neat daughter:)

Alphabet craft day!

My friend and I are swapping educational/babysitting days with our kiddos once a week. Today was my first day with the kids and we decided to try a version of "Alphabet Rocks!' that I had seen on Mother Lode's blog. In our version, we used stickers on the rocks that we then covered with a thick layer of mod podge to keep the stickers from peeling off.
during our craft time Kyri become a little photographer and got some shots of me and then Cutter
Cutter LOVES Kyrie, every time he see's her he lights up. Seriously! It's really sweet
Here is little Kyri spelling out "spiders" with her rocks. (while the rocks dried we all went outside searching for bugs. LOL)

can you see?

Ben first spelled "slugs" with his rocks...but then got inspired and instead spelled out...

...Washington D.C.

After craft time the kiddos got to put their alphabet rock collection in their own little fabric bags. The girls especially enjoyed having little bags to keep their rocks in.
and proceeded to give me plenty of poses to snap pictures of. Love it!

Crafty projects day

Inspired by Mother Lode's play square give away...awhile back...I decided to pull out my random scraps of fabric and make Cutter his own set of play squares. I put crinkly material on the inside so they are fun to grab and chew on.
Cutter has a little cold today, so sitting around playing...not leaving the house...is the plan for the day
so far he isn't letting his cold get to him. He is happy as a clam. Perhaps mostly happy that I'm not dragging him around to a million places today. LOL
Tomorrow (if baby is doing well) I plan on going to a friends house to do a teaching craft with the kiddos, these little baggies will some how be included in that craft. I got the "how to" from the gigantic Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts sent to me as a birthday present from my Mother-in-Law (Thanks Peggy!)
I also made these out of random left over pieces of fabric. In the book old suiting material was used. I did come pretty close to finding a pair of old pants or a suit coat of Jonathan's that needed to go to Goodwill...but decided this fabric will have to do. Busy day at home so far!

1st day of Pre-school

Despite my best efforts, Jade's first day of pre-school was moved back to...today. LOL! But today we got started bright and early, even had time for some pre....school...pre-school pics! Jade took these very seriously.

okay, so maybe not THAT seriously. But she is VERY excited about starting school even if it is taking place, at home.
We started our school with prayer, the pledge of allegiance (to a picture of the American Flag on my computer...since we don't own an American Flag), Phonics, Math and then of course, some fun craft time using glitter glue!
Jade had lots of fun during her first hour of school and thankfully Cutter enjoyed himself on the floor, playing with toys and baby talking non-stop.
my little goober bug being super cute, in his old man pants and football shirt. FOOTBALL!
Okay, school's over, Cutter's down for a nap, Jade has play time, it's after 9am and now I need to get dressed and start MY day. LOL

My birthday weekend

I feel like I have been on a long weekend since last Wednesday. Why? Because it was my birthday week!

Wednesday evening I joined my husband at a nice restaurant for a work related dinner. I had an excuse to dress up and we got a sitter for the kids.

Thursday (my birthday, and my mom's birthday...Happy birthday Mom!) I met a friend at The Bread Peddlers in downtown Oly for lunch. Following lunch more friends came over in the afternoon to hang out with us and watch movies!

After dinner (I made home made Gyros!) Jonathan and Jade surprised me with a special birthday cake. If you look closely you can see this cake is covered in crushed graham crackers (for sand), air head candy's were stretched and smashed together to create beach towels and then he used a flip flop cookie cutter and gel icing to make little flip flops. SO cute!
Friday night a few couples joined us at "Hop Jacks" for happy hour appetizer and drink specials. After dinner, having time to kill and nothing to do, a few of us took a walk over to the near by Lowes (yes, I said Lowes) to just kill time. Here is a pic of us ladies trying out some patio furniture.
Saturday was also super fun, I spent pretty much the WHOLE day at South Center, shopping with three of my friends (Kristen isn't pictured in the pic below). We all had a really great time
Monday (yesterday) made the weekend that much longer since Jonathan had the day off. It was great having an extra day to get stuff done around the house and hang out together. Another friend of ours had his birthday, so we joined them for a fancy steak dinner and some yummy dessert after.

Good morning

This is usually what happens every morning. I have the kids eating breakfast, I'm catching up on emails and I'm fighting with Cutter to drink my coffee without spilling it. He is very interested in my coffee...er the bright shiny mug that I keep bringing to my lips. What would I do without photobooth on my laptop?
Jade wanted to join in the photobooth fun. So here we are, this is what we look like first thing in the morning. Before hair brushes and day clothes.

aren't we just a beautiful bunch?

Tomorrow is my birthday...just in case anyone wanted to know:)