Goodnight Prayers by Madelyn

"Dear God, please help me to do what I need to do. I really want it to be my birthday soon. It sure was a great day. Please help Daddy remember to come
in and say goodnight to me. Help him to fight off all the bad guys to protect me. In Jesus name, Amen."

Meal Plan-1/17/13

I just came off of a quiet, relaxing anniversary weekend.  My parents so kindly took the kids Friday and Saturday night and hubs and I were able to see a movie, go to the gym, out to breakfast and out to dinner.  All without kids.  There may or may not have been a lot of TV watching done by me on Saturday afternoon while all other housework took a backseat.  I'm not sure though.  At any rate, it was marvelous...and quiet.  Did I mention that?  Ahhhhh....

So, back to work and running kids to and fro and back to the chaos that we call our life.  It's all good when you have a meal plan in place.

Monday-Tacos
Tuesday-Mac-Oh Geez!
Wednesday-Black bean burgers
Thursday-mish mosh of leftovers since the kids eat at Mee-ma/P pa's and hubs picks them up late.
Friday-Potato pizzas
Saturday-Pasta dish
Sunday-Tomato, avocado, pesto grilled cheese with salad
Monday-Minestrone soup (frozen from a different batch)
Tuesday-Assorted roasted veggies (red potato, zucchini, brussel sprouts, peppers)
Wednesday-Pancakes and hash browns
Thursday-Lentils with brown rice
Friday-Pizza
Saturday-Sushi

Have a great week and don't forget to drink your green smoothies this week!

Breakfast Brown Rice Pudding

In my meal plan this week I added a new recipe to our morning breakfast routine. Although we never seem to get tired of overnight oats, I wanted to throw in another option for a warm quickie breakfast packed with nutrition. It didn't disappoint and has quickly become a favorite among all of us.

I am not one to measure, so after I made the first batch by measuring the next day I sort of eyeballed everything and just threw it all in a pot together and hoped for the best. By the 3rd time we ate it I had made enough modifications to make it pretty darn near perfect. The original recipe is here.

I cooked my brown rice in a rice cooker at night then put in the fridge for the next few days. I tried another recipe for breakfast brown rice pudding that had you cook the rice on the stove top and it failed miserably. After 50 min - 1 hour the rice was still hard. So, I haven't mastered the craft of making brown rice on the stove top yet (obviously). BUT, in the rice cooker it comes out perfect. Just make sure to soak your brown rice for at least an hour before cooking. Then rinse until the water runs clear.

2 cups brown rice
*1 1/2 cups milk of your choice
Handful of raisins
1 T of maple syrup
1 T (or so) of brown sugar
1 T chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 mashed banana (the riper the better)
*Chopped walnuts or choice of nuts
diced up fruit (we used strawberries and blueberries and oranges)
Sprinkle of flax seed/wheat germ mix

Put rice, milk, raisins, maple syrup, brown sugar, chia seeds, vanilla and cinnamon in a pot and simmer on low to med heat until it becomes a thicker consistency. While that's cooking, mash 1/2 banana in each person's bowl. Once the mixture is heated through and slightly thick spoon it over the banana. Top with flax seeds, walnuts and fruit. Add another splash of milk if you want/need to thin out the consistency.

*We use Trader Joe's unsweetened vanilla almond milk (found in the refrigerated section). Make sure your nut milks DO NOT contain carrageenan. Almond Breeze brand is one that does, while Silk does not. Even TJ's shelf stable almond milk contains it, while the refrigerated version does not. Go figure. So read your ingredients or even make your own rice, almond, hemp milks! It's actually simple to do!

*Kid tip: Madelyn likes walnuts while Kaiden could totally live without them.  I usually will grind my walnuts in the Vitamix (use a food processor if you don't have a Vitamix) to make the walnuts into a powdery form.  This way when I sprinkle them on things like this or in overnight oats they won't even know it's there but they are getting a healthy dose of Omega 3's!  It will be slightly sticky because of the oil in the nuts...so don't over process   And probably best to store them in the fridge.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! MMMmmmmm!

Meal Plan-1/19/13

I don't know if I have mentioned that I returned to work this past week on a part time basis.  It's been 5 years since I have worked in the "real world" and I was terrified at the thought of it all.  But all in all this week went surprisingly well and I actually really enjoyed the familiarity of being back and work.  And of course the "quiet time" while at work in my office was pretty sweet.  I guess I can compare it to going to the grocery store without kids.  It all kind of seems like a big vacation.  

At any rate, all the "free time" that I have now (as if!) has been cut in half.  I am still trying to figure out and navigate this new schedule of mine but I suspect it's going to consist of laundry and grocery shopping at night or on the weekends as well as trying to prepare breakfasts/lunches the night before so as to not be completely crazy in the mornings.  

In addition to the lack of time the New Year has brought us, we also started off 2013 on a STRICT budget.  We have gone to CASH ONLY system.  Dave Ramsey style.  We even cut up on credit cards on New Years day (GASP!).  Oh the horror!  But, both lack of time and strict budgeting has forced me to put meal planning back at the top of my list (notice how it's taken me 19 days into the new year to accomplish it?  Ho hum.).  Cause a funny thing happens when I actually have a meal plan in place.  I actually spend less at the grocery store.  Imagine that!  So here goes nothing...

Saturday-Left overs

Sunday-Roasted veggie and eggplant parm sandwiches

Monday-Whole wheat pasta with veggies.

Tuesday-Salmon and rice with veggies

Wednesday-Quinoa waldorf salad

Thursday-Crock pot tortellini soup

Friday-Hamburgers/veggie burgers
Saturday-Plant powered pizza
Sunday-Veggie chili in my crock pot
Monday-Sweet potato burritos
Tuesday-Olive Garden Minestrone soup
Wednesday-Curry veggies over rice
Thursday-Broccolli slaw salad
Friday-Breakfast for dinner.  Eggs and hash browns and toast.
Saturday-Spring rolls with thai noodles

Breakfasts:
Overnight oats
Breakfast rice pudding
English muffins with almond butter and banana slices
Rips big bowl

Lunches:
Hemp salad
Left over quinoa waldorf salad
PB&J
Bagels and vegan cream cheese
Veggies, fruit and hummus with crackers
Left overs

I encourage you to start a meal plan today.  Remember it's not set in stone but rather a guide to use during the week.  It gives you a plan as to what to buy at the grocery store and helps with that 4:00 dinner rush.  I know that it's best to have a meal plan in place just finding the time to do it is another story!  What's on your menu this upcoming week?  I'd love to hear!

Green Smoothie

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We had a great Christmas (thanks for asking) with our family.  We did our best to make it less about the presents this year (as last year was ridiculous!) and more about Jesus.  I think we succeeded   The kids had a blast, as well as the adults.  As for New Years...well, it just seemed to be another day like every other day around here.  I think I stayed awake until about 9:30 on NYE.  I tell ya, the excitement never ends.    

So here we are with Christmas behind us and two days into 2013.  If you are like most Americans, you put "lose weight" as your #1 New Year's Resolution.  In January 2012 my resolution to "eat healthier" caused me to adopted a plant based diet (mostly vegan) and I haven't looked back.  The first few months were a challenge to my meal plans, taste buds and will power, but I can honestly say that I feel so much better and don't worry about my weight since adopting this way of life.  Although we still occasionally eat meat and dairy products it is only a fraction of what it used to be.  Quite honestly, if and when I do eat meat or dairy I often regret eating it within 30 minutes as it makes me feel bloated, nauseous and just plain "icky."   

If you have read my blog for any amount of time you know that we often start our mornings out with a fresh green juice.  We started juicing after watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead last year.  Go watch it now if you haven't seen it (free online).  Watch now.  Come back and read later.  I have recently switched to making green smoothies for the past couple months.  No real reason other than that my Vitamix is a little easier to clean than my juicer.  None-the-less it's been a good to switch it up a bit.  I encourage you to start the New Year off right.  If you do nothing else this year as far as changing you diet, at least start adding green smoothies or juices to your daily routine.  Oh, and ditch the caffeine.  You'll thank me later.  

                                               

Ingredients:

1-1 1/2 cup water

1 T chia seeds

1T flax seeds/wheat germ mix

1T of hemp seeds

1/2 cucumber, cut up (peeled if not organic)

2-3 organic celery stalks, cut up

1 apple, seeds removed, skin left on, cut up

1 ripe banana (the browner the better), fresh or frozen

Handful of kale

Handful of spinach

10 drops of stevia

1 date 

1" pc of ginger peeled

*Children's probiotics

*Green Vibrance

I often add some mixed berry frozen fruit, or feel free to freeze your bananas first.  If you don't have kale or spinach, substitute any greens that you have on hand.  I often use two kinds of greens in one smoothie.  romaine or collards can work as well.  In fact, today we used romaine and spinach with frozen banana and mangos.  Oh yum!  Another option is to add a half of an avocado (don't worry, it doesn't change the taste too radically) or some almond butter.  Maybe some coconut, chocolate chips (vegan of course) or cashews. The possibilities are endless!  Go ahead and experiment.  

If you are new to green smoothies, you may want to stick to spinach and collards or romaine first to get used to the taste as these greens will be less noticeable.  Work your way up to kale if you can (along with another green) since it will add the most bang for your buck nutritionally speaking.  I would advise against using greens such as arugula and mustard greens as they tend to have a "spicy" flavor that is VERY apparent in your juices/smoothies.  Fill your Vitamix up to the top and blend away.  Although I have never used any other type of blender, I believe it's possible to get a smooth green smoothie with another type of blender.  You might just have to add a bit more water or blend for longer period of time.  

*I often will mix in 1 tsp child's probiotics in the kid's smoothie (Yes, my kids drink up their smoothies and even ask for seconds:).  Then I will sometimes mix in a scoop of Green Vibrance in hubs' and my smoothie.  This will definitely change the taste of the smoothie and can be a hard taste to get used to.  But it's loaded with extra nutrition that will help ward off those winter germs!

                                               

Now get going!  Make your green smoothie today and watch your energy soar!

Butternut Squash & Apple Soup (Veganized!)

I bought a butternut squash at my last grocery store trip and have been itching to make some butternut squash soup.  I had made it years ago and forgot how easy it really can be.  Especially when you own a Vitamix.  I found a recipe here.  But, of course, I needed to make a few changes to bring it to a "plant powered" status.  So here it goes!  

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash.  About medium size.

2 apples peeled, cored and cubed

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 T minced garlic

1 T butter (find yourself some Earth Balance soy free butter)

1/4 c flour

1/4 tsp thyme

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup broth (original recipe calls for chicken broth, but I subbed veggie broth)

*I added a dash of cinnamon and about a 1" pc of ginger

Steam the squash and apples until soft.  I think mine took about 15-20 minutes

While the squash is steaming saute the garlic and onions in the butter.  I didn't have onions so I just sauteed the garlic and added it to the other ingredients in the blender.  Blend for 3-4 minutes or until thicker.

Add the steamed squash and apples and blend again for about 1 minute or so or until creamy.  

Serve immediately  or put back on the stove top to heat through for later.  Will also freeze really well.  

It was a really easy recipe and pretty yummy!  Serve with a side salad and enjoy yourself a plant powered meal!

25 Days of Christmas: 2012 Edition

I started doing 25 days of Christmas the past couple of years after following Katie's blog and stealing borrowing her idea.  The kids love looking forward to having something Christmasy to do each day in December leading up to Christmas.  Admittedly, I love it too!  I'm a few days late in posting our list of activities.  But what else is new?

Day 1-Ernie our Elf on the Shelf arrives at our home.  We read the book of "rules" and what he will be doing here the next 24 days. (CHECK!)
Day 2-Live Nativity. (We didn't end up doing this because I was exhausted and wanted to sleep all day!)
Day 3-Did nothing.  Call us slackers...just not to our face.
Day 4-Because I am [lately] behind on everything, we missed out on activities this day.  Does moving the numbers on our Christmas countdown count?
Day 5-Bah Humbug.  Hopefully we can redeem ourselves.
Day 6-Decorate the Christmas tree
Day 7-Christmas Parade in Phoenixville
Day 8-Festival in downtown Phoenixville or Watch a Christmas movie
Day 9-Christmas village at Westridge train display
Day 10-Make a Christmas ornament craft
Day 11-Take the train into Philadelphia for the Macy's Holiday light show & Dickens Village
Day 12-Drive around and look at Christmas lights
Day 13-Go sit on Santa's lap
Day 14-Buy gifts for needy children
Day 15-Live Nativity @ Merrymead Farm
Day 16-Santa express train ride in West Chester
Day 17-Watch Christmas movie
Day 18-Make cards/gifts for teachers at school
Day 19-Make Christmas cookies
Day 20-Make reindeer food
Day 21-Kids Christmas show at school
Day 22-Drive around and look at Christmas lights
Day 23-Make birthday cake for Jesus
Day 24-Read the Nativity story from the bible

May your month be filled with good fun, lots of laughter and great memories!

Merry Christmas! 

Kaiden's 5th Birthday

Kaiden turned FIVE!  Yes, he's FIVE!  But it didn't happen yesterday.  Or last week.  Or even a few weeks ago.  He turned five October 2nd.  And I am just now blogging about it.  Ho hum.

Mother of the year.  Please stand up.

For real.  He's five.  And, like, all of a sudden he seems all grown up.  The way he talks.  The things he does.   It's really hard to look at him and not think, "who are you and what have you done with my little boy?"  I mean,  just yesterday we were here in the NICU waiting for this little bugger to come home:

And today we are here watching him score goals in his soccer games.

The great part about Kaiden's birthday this year is that we splurged and had his birthday party at a local gymnastics center.  Best. Money. Ever. Spent.  I just couldn't even begin to think of how a party would look in our little townhouse.  The party was amazing.  They took care of everything from the invitations, the decorations, set up and clean up.  I showed up with my cake and they took care of the rest.  All the kids had a blast and birthday boy did too!

We decorated party bags for all of our guests a few days before the party...

...and stuffed them full!

The kids climbed the big rolly tube and jumped into the foam "cheese" pit

So cute!

They bounced in the bounce house and slide down the blow up slide

They pretended they were airplanes

And scaled some gym apparatus.

They crawled through the blow up caterpillar (in the back) and  played on some more equipment

We had cake and ice cream in the party room (complete with music and disco ball) 

And opened presents in the birthday chair

What a great time!!!

Happy Birthday my big boy!  You are the best little bubby a mom could hope for.  Love you to pieces!! 

Meal Plan-11/4/12

Here starts another crazy week in the life of us.

I am going to attempt to restock my freezer with some muffins and breakfast foods by baking up a few batches of each of these recipes.  It's always nice to have them on hand for quick pulls for breakfast, snacks and, heck, even to pull for some quick lunches or dinners!
Vegan pumpkin muffins
Vegan Chocolate zucchini muffins
Vegan whole wheat waffles

Always on the look out for new salad ideas for lunch, I thought I would try this three bean salad recipe from Oh She Glows.  I love her recipes!

And I can't forget dessert so I'll probably make up a batch or three of Dreena's vegan chocolate chip cookies.  Oh. My.  I'll try and get some into the freezer before I eat them all.  They are sooooo good.  But a quick note if you decide to make them, it calls for a 1/4 cup of sugar, but honestly, I cut that in half and it is still sweet enough.  Follow the other directions to a "T."  You don't want these babies to dry out.

Sunday
Mish mosh of left overs and smoothies.

Monday
Vegan ravioli with veggies.  Found these at Wegmans and thought I'd give them a try since I have yet to find a pre-made vegan ravioli!!!

Tuesday
Salmon and quinoa/rice blend with veggies

Wednesday
Grilled Cheese and Soup

Thursday
Black Beans and Rice

Friday
Veggie Pizza

Saturday
Hopefully out to dinner

Boo-ya!

Have you ever "been Boo-ed?"  Well, last night we started to "boo" our neighbors.  A fun little game to get into the holiday spirit.

You can get as creative as you want in making your boo-bag or boo-basket.  There are plenty of fancy basket ideas on the Internet or make a colorful bag or even fill a plastic pumpkin with some goodies.  Because we wanted to keep it simple and inexpensive, I found some brown bags I already had on hand in which the kids decorated with stickers and crayons.  I found some Halloween themed trinkets and treats at the grocery store and we stuffed our bags full.  We attached our boo-poem that I found here to the front.  (You can also use the one here)  Then off we went to "Boo" our neighbors!

 I found some Halloween themed trinkets and treats at Giant grocery store.  Plastic rings, stickers, Halloween tissues, pretzels and glow bracelets (I bought a whole slew of these last year after Halloween on clearance)..

The kids stuffed the bags full of goodies! 

I folded the sign and attached them to the bags with a ribbon on the opposite side that Kaiden and Madelyn decorated.

Since we are the ones starting the Boo-ing in our neighborhood we picked 4 neighbors to "boo."  If all goes well, they each will "boo" 2 neighbors and it should take off from there.  The kids were so excited to run up to our neighbors doors, leave the bags, hit the doorbells and run!  It was hilarious to watch them!  

Hopefully we will start seeing the boo signs pop up on all of our neighbors doors in the next two weeks indicating who's been boo-ed!

Happy Halloween!