No More Noise! Genius

Do your kids toys make phantom noises? The hubs and me find sometimes we can just be walking threw the house and if you step too hard a toy will go off in the other room. It can be very creepy. Actually Guys With Kids did a whole episode about it.

Some toys are nice enough to come with an off button, very nice. But some sneaky toys have that little pull tab that once pulled you can never turn the darn thing off again! Mister has this lovely Sassy suction toy that is great for popping him into the high chair and keeping him entertained. It spins, it rattles, it sings to him; he loves it. Mommy though does not always love the constant sound of the music coming from it. I tolerate it at home, but I wanted to take this toy on the road with us for our dinner date. The other guest at the restaurant may not tolerate the noise as well as I do...so I fixed it! Genius moment!

I cut off a piece of a plastic bag (paper does not work) inserted it into the little hole and then taped it down tight. Now no noise! He doesn't seem to mind too much and I can always take it back out for him to play with at home.

Another toy Genius moment.

Silence is golden :)

Review: M. in East Hyde Park

Since two out of three kids are staying at my parents house for spring break the hubs and I decided Mister (6 months) would be fine to take out for a much needed date night. The weather was wonderful outside so we decided to walk to one of the local restaurants on Erie.

We are fortunate enough to have at least 6 restaurants within walking distance of our home. We strapped Mister into the stroller and went for a walk. M is a new place that just recently opened. It was the home to a great Chief Owen Maass, but sadly they let him go and I think the restaurant is suffering because of it. When we first ate there we loved it thinking it would be a staple in our date nights. I was hesitant to go there only because of the drama of letting go of such a great chief but the hubs wanted meat, and he knew they had meat.

Our second go around with this place was not as impressive at all :( they flaunt their wood fire oven and yet very little is cooked in there but the pizzas. And our server while very smiley was SO slow, maybe the kitchen was backed up but everything took forever to come out. I'm all for a long meal but then bring out things in order, he ended up bringing our salad with the meal? Ok on to the food...

We each ordered a drink and quickly decided on the daily bruschetta; pea puree with goat cheese and bacon. I actually make a hauntingly similar version of this for parties. Verdict straight from the hubs, "Yours is way better!"

We then ordered truffle fries (not as good as Senate's), the caprese salad (boring), purple gratin (soupy and under cooked) and the pork shank with polenta. None of these items are not something that could be made at home and the flavors were not elevated enough that you would want to pay to go out and get them.

The Gratin is supposed to be what they are known for. A wood fired delicious mix of purple cauliflower and brussel sprouts in a thick cheesy sauce baked to perfection. Sadly we got a soupy mix of mostly white cauliflower and those poor brussel sprouts were so under cooked. I would have sent the whole mess back but our food took so long to arrive that we were famished and we just wanted to eat so we could leave. The pork shank (looked like something Fred Flinstone might eat) was very delicious with the polenta and gravy. It was actually the saving grace of the whole meal. Mister devoured a little pork and cauliflower and we enjoyed just spending time together. Overall I don't know if we will be rushing back. I did like the price point, about $60 for everything, but I would be willing to pay more for better food.

This dinner was good for us in that we took the extra time for just us even laughing over bad service and food. Also getting to fawn over only Mister this week has been perfect. Many dinners remarked at how cute and well behaved Mister was, which always makes me smile.

Photos courtesy of M's facebook page

Chewy Yummy Granola Bars

Well Easter is all done and so is our Lenten Promise of no processed foods. It was a much easier promise to keep then I had expected. I think we were already eating pretty healthy, this promise just pushed us to try more new recipes and alternatives to snacking. It was easy to rely on all the premade grocery items available; boxed dinners, mac & cheese, seasoning packets, quick snacks like granola bars, waffles, and chips. You don't realize how much of these items you are ingesting till you take them all away.

I think that was the big revelation, we didn't realize how much snacking we were doing. Everyone in the house was grabbing snacks in between almost every meal. And these snacks weren't particularly unhealthy but they were filling little bellies so there was no room left for the real stuff. I found by the end of our forty days that my Little Man wasn't such a picky eater anymore. I think before he was full at dinner time; now that he hadn't had so many snacks during the day there was more room for him to try new foods at the dinner table. Is he still picky, yes, did he try sugar snap peas, sunflower seeds, quinoa and zucchini, YES and it wasn't even a huge battle. He was hungry so he ate and he spit out what he didn't like, but we kept trying. 

Will we go back to processed foods? Hmmm maybe not. I do miss my cereal and I think some chips are ok (craving chips and salsa as we speak) but I liked watching the kids reach for fruit and nuts instead of crackers and crap. Maybe all families should try no processed foods, for at least a week. You might be surprised at how much fun it is.

One last homemade recipe. The kids missed their Quaker Granola bars so we had to find an alternative and while these aren't prepacked perfection they are darn tasty and maybe a new staple in our home. I started with Baked by Rachel's Granola recipe and tweaked it from there to get the perfect yummy deliciousness. I had to replace the rice cereal since that would be considered processed and I think ours worked!

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars:

• 1 cup steal cut oats
• 1 tbl cinnamon
• 2 tbl brown sugar
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 4 tbls butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• handful or more of mini chocolate chips

Heat oven to 400. Grease up a 9x13 pyrex dish and set it to the side. 

Mix the steal cut oats, cinnamon and two tbls of brown sugar on a flat baking sheet. Bake this in the oven for about 20, till you can smell the sugar melting. This will be the replacement for the rice cereal, the baking gives it a deeper flavor and also a better crunch (I didn't like our 1st version with no baking)

Mix the butter, honey, brown sugar and salt in a sauce pan on the stove. You want to melt the butter and just bring it to a quick boil. Add this to your dry ingredients; rolled oats, steel cut oats, almond meal and raisins. 

Honey trick: add pam to the measuring cup first and the honey slides right out

Mix everything together well. You want the sugar/butter to coat every inch of your dry ingredients. If they are not coated well they will not stick together. Once everything is well coated press the mixture into your greased Pyrex dish. Add your handful or more of mini chocolate chips and press these in as well. You can use your spoon to mix them in a little but they might start to melt since your mixture is warm. Let the whole dish set in the fridge for at least an hour or longer. Once it is stiff just slid it out of your dish and chop into bars. 

I wrapped each bar in a little parchment paper and put them in a container in the fridge. They are so yummy and delicious I sorta want to eat them all. 

Good luck with your own non processed adventures!

Linked at:
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.bunsinmyoven.com  

Enjoy Your Weekend

 

Well it is Easter weekend and our Lenten Promise is coming to an end. I will recap on Monday but my quick summary is: I think we will keep going. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, not as pricey, but we will bring some things back. Here are some links to enjoy...

The Chive always seems to inspire me just when I need it :)

Thinking it would be fun to try and make some pinatas this weekend for our Easter Celebration...they seem easy enough and you doesn't love a good paper-mâché project!

100 Rules to Dinner; a long but awesome list. 
18. Kitchen chairs should be red. Or at least fun.
81. Everything in moderation, but particularly garlic.

If you are into peanut butter eggs for Easter, Cincinnati has some of the best! Papa's Peanut Butter eggs (and opera cream, or coconut or pineapple) are the quintessential item in my kids baskets.

Prudent Baby makes the best stuff in the microwave, like how about a carrot cake. 

And if your still hungry you have to check out the perfect waffle.

Some people are much better at egg decorating than I am. 

Have fun Easter Egg Hunting!

Bento Lunch

Usually my daughter buys hot lunch at her school. They offer a pretty good variety and lots of healthy options. I am happy to know that they make all the food there in the school and use mostly fresh ingredients. Does my daughter actually eat all those healthy options, I highly doubt it; but they're offered.

Today though she didn't like what was on the menu and needed me to make her a quote "yummy lunch, like you make LittleMan". LittleMan is pretty darn picky so I have started making him Bento Box lunches, since I bit the bullet and bought this lunch box. I LOVE this lunch box and all it's little compartments and especially that it does not leak! The only bad thing about it is that it does not fit in any of the lunch box carriers we have except for a Lulu Lemon bag. Yes they sell bags on the site as well, but sorry those just don't fit our ascetics. Maybe I will get crafty and make one, one day. But until then the kids are happy to sport any bag that carries this treasure trove of treats.

I don't get crazy with making faces on the sandwich and rose carrot curls but I do try to offer a variety of yummyness. So here is what she ate today.

• Broccoli Slaw with Garlic Expressions Dressing
• Red Seedless Grapes
• Roast Chicken with Pepper and Garlic Salt on Homemade Buttermilk Bread
• Plain Greek Yogurt with Honey and Strawberries
• Robins Eggs (#1 Easter candy in our house)

Was it my best effort? Maybe not, but she has some healthy options to choose or ignore.

Linked at http://www.bentolunch.net/

The Perfect Waffle

It has been a long road to finding the perfect waffle...we tried many recipes and many variations until we got it just right and then we modified it more to fit our families nutritional needs :) TWEAK! (apology now, the only picture that is mine is above of our final product, sadly I lost all my others)

So we ended with this Milk's Favorite Waffle from Dine & Dish. It was a perfect base to grow from producing a thick batter that created fluffy waffles that crisped just enough around the edges. I really think it has to do with the beaten egg whites! But even with this almost perfect recipe my kids were crying for Eggo waffles, gross!

So with a little tweak here and a little tweak there...I might have finally converted them!

Final Recipe For the Perfect Waffle:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1/2 cup all purpose
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbl heaped brown sugar
• 2 beaten egg yolks
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 3 tbl melted butter
• 1tsp vanilla extract 
• milk for consistency
• 2 stiff beaten egg whites

First pull your eggs out of the fridge, never underestimate the power of a room temperature egg when beating egg whites! Also go ahead and plug in your waffle iron so it can preheat.

Mix together your flours, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl, make sure you break up those sugar clumps. Nuke the butter in the microwave for about 10 seconds or so, you don't want to put it in hot so give it time to cool. Separate your egg yolks and whites. Place the whites into a separate bowl and lightly beat the yolks in a measuring cup and pour into your flour, adding your yogurt, butter, and vanilla, mix well. If it feels too thick add a little milk but you don't want it to be thin, think of paint in a bucket, just a touch thicker than that.

Now comes the fun part, beat those egg whites!! Here is a great tutorial for beating egg white if you are new to this process.  You are looking for stiff peaks, see below. You will fold this light and fluffy perfection into your batter. And by fold I mean add 1/3 of the egg whites at a time to your batter and rather than mixing in a stirring motion you will scrape under the batter to the top rolling it in the bowl until all your whites are JUST folded in.

Perfect Peaks image from A Lump of Sugar

These egg whites are going to thicken up your batter, leaving it more like the paste you used in school. Also those egg whites are where the fluffy waffles will come from :)

Plop some batter in your waffle maker and voila, perfect delicious waffles! Each waffle maker works a little bit different so your first waffle might come out wonky if it wasn't preheated enough, or you didn't spray a little pam in there to grease it up, or it didn't cook long enough. Mine has a light to tell me when the waffle is done.

These waffles are gobbled up in our house but on the off chance we have left overs I let them cool and throw them in a freezer bag, then they are just like frozen waffles! Pop them in the toaster and you have breakfast to go on a busy school morning.

Enjoy!

Linked at:
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecraftedsparrow.com/ 
http://www.bunsinmyoven.com

Enjoy Your Weekend

My little volleyball star has her first tournament game tonight. We are hoping for a win but sadly the girl inherited my athletic skill which is slim to none :( and even more sadly she does not have a competitive spirit. She is really just there to socialize with friends, which I guess is good too. They all enjoy her company and are not so competitive that they resent her inability to hit the ball over the net. But maybe this being her FIRST tournament she will rise to the top?! What fun events do you have going one?

Quinoa with roasted sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and sugar snap peas

Sketchers is in a heap of trouble, as they should be, over their new line of shoes called Daddy$ (pronounced daddy's money)

The kids love building forts all over the house, here is some inspiration

For my daughter's birthday party I am thinking of making up some of these t-shirt bags as the goodie bags using toddler sized Ts?

Also have you been following Dana's Celebrate the Boy!? Her and Rae are making the cutest boy stuff, easily transferred to girl as well.

And how about some Quinoa granola? hmmmm