Category Archives: glorious food!

And then there was candy…

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We had a great weekend.

Saturday was an errand day, had to go grocery shopping. Managed to get one of the last two hams in the commissary. Not having ham on Easter would have been a deal breaker. What the heck else do you have? I really would have loved to make lamb but who knows where I can get that here! Anyways, I managed to grab all of my groceries for Easter dinner as well as all of the other stuff I needed and it wasn’t too crowded. YAY!

Also managed to run over to the exchange can get some last minute Easter crap for the kids baskets. My mom sent them clothes but I BEGGED her to not send baskets this year. They are full of stuff the kids really don’t need. I am really trying to cut down on the amount of STUFF that comes into the house.

So I grabbed the kids some bubble sets, pool toys and some candy and called it a day. Also had some books hidden away in my room that I grabbed and put in the baskets.

The weather was beautiful so we threw some steaks on the grill for dinner (we being I) and took a little walk around the neighborhood.  There has been a ton of construction going on as they convert 2 bedroom duplexes to 4 bedroom houses and our street is pretty much a ghost town. The half that was all two bedrooms is closed off and our half of the street with three bedrooms is half empty. They haven’t been moving any new families onto our street.  Anyways, we had a nice walk and I resisted the urge to trespass in all of the new construction!

That night I ended up staying up WAY too late finishing my final project for a class. Now I am down to ONE class! I wish I could say I was excited I am just so ready to be DONE.

Sunday morning came way too early after being up so late. O had me up by 9 and I gave him some breakfast and then hibernated on the couch with some coffee. At 10, M decided she wanted to make everyone breakfast (more like brunch by the time we ate). She had gotten a Paula Dean cookbook for kids from my mom for Christmas and has been dying to try it out. So she made us all fried egg sandwiches and herself french toast. I barely helped her at all (I did fry the bacon for the sandwiches) Just gave some pointers on egg flipping. She did a great job! I need to let her help more in the kitchen but that is ‘my’ space and I am terrible at sharing.  I just know I LOVED helping my mom, aunts and grandmothers in the kitchen (and my grandpa at the grill) when I was her age.

We also managed to dye eggs, bake cookies, have an easter egg/basket hunt, and prepare and eat a huge meal. Then off for another walk to the playground to burn off the food!  Time for the photos!

Okay. Their baskets were in use so they used paper bags to find eggs. Don't judge me. Also M would like you to know that her braces matched her dress! Good choice this month babe!

 

So! Excited!

 

Last year this spot was the toughie... she could NOT find the last egg. This year was in the stack of patio chairs.

 

Oh yeah. And this BRIGHT GREEN one sitting on a white fence. She walked past it about five times.

 

Found his basket! And then proceeded to try to take everything out and put it into his paper bag.

 

 

 

After looking ALL over the yard she was ready to give up on finding her basket. Finally found it in the doghouse. A place that she had peeked into while looking for eggs. Oh yeah. Covered in a dog blanket. MMMMMmmmm, dog hair chocolate!

 

My beautiful girl.

 

A shot with the kiddos. Yes my daughter really is that tall.
(Alternate title: You're not having any candy until you take a picture with mommy!)

 

And the arguing starts over who got what and who has the better candy. For God's sake it's all the same! I know better!

 

I hate you all right now for making me pose with this stupid basket.

 

This is so humiliating.

 

Adorable. Love this man.

 

Proof that we dyed eggs since I didn't take a shot of them all lined up pretty and colorful. And now they are all piled in a bowl in the fridge and we've already eaten half of them.

 

Bubbles! (Every time I see kids and bubbles I think of that "Knocked Up" line: Paul Rudd saying he wished he liked anything as much as his kids liked bubbles. SO. TRUE!)

Bowser loves bubbles, too!

 

Love these. We went through the whole giant bottle in a day. They are super fun.

 

Bowser STILL loves bubbles!

 

After dinner it was still nice and sunny and I snuck outside with a glass of wine on the chaise lounge. I felt like a lizard, winter was too long. O came out to see what I was doing my my husband (!!!) and daughter (!!!) cleaned up dinner and did the dishes (!!!). (Sorry it was just really surprising!)

We were just outside being silly and he kept saying he didn’t want to take a picture and I just kept taking them.

 

I call this one: "Are you serious, mom?"

 

And this one: Damn I love this kid.

Saturday!

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So our Easter Egg hunt was rained out so we decided to go run around town…

 

First stop: Lunch. We grabbed kebabs in El Puerto.

Clown!

 

M was journaling our day...

 

Yum. Shawarma Kebab!

 

Fries with kebab meat and sauce. I did share these with the whole family. They weren't just for me!

Then off to do some shopping at Decathlon. We actually came home empty handed because we were looking to buy a ripstick. We are all a bit obsessed with riding M’s right now. The ones they had were super pricey so we’ll probably just order from Amazon.

Decathlon!

But if there is ANYTHING you could ever need, it would be here. They have EVERY sport imaginable.

 

Horse tack, just in case.

 

I don't even know what Padel is... It's not raquetball and it's not tennis.

 

 

 

So we came away empty handed today but I think I want to go back because they had some super cute swimsuits out. Hope you had a wonderful Saturday!

 

Super HOT habanero hot sauce

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So I made this hot sauce for my husband a few weeks ago and he has already finished it! While it is extremely hot, it apparently has a lot of flavor as well.  The carrots help to bring out the sweetness in the peppers.  While I can’t personally attest to this (it is WAY to spicey for me!) it got rave reviews from my husband.

So if you are in need of a hot sauce recipe, here you go!

1 1/2 cups chopped carrots

1 small onion (I use red, because that’s what I always have on hand)

3-4 cloves garlic (I used the dried minced because my fresh garlic always goes bad)

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups lime juice (I did half and half lemon and lime because I ran out of lime)

1 cup habaneros. (I used one sandwich bag full of previously frozen chilis but you can use less peppers if you want a little less heat)

Put everything but the peppers in a pan and simmer for 10 min or so until the carrots are soft. Pour into a blender. Cut the stems of the habaneros and put in blender.

Do NOT get this stuff on your fingers or in your eye!

Blend until smooth.  I didn’t strain this because the seeds don’t bother my husband but you could if you wanted it smoother.

The end result!

Enjoy!

My love letter to my daughter’s lunchbox.

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So. I am an Environmental Management major with a minor in Natural Science. I have really been inspired to try and eliminate as much trash as possible in our household.  As of right now we throw away one bag of trash about every 7-10 days for our family of four.  It’s not bad (at least compared to the average American) but I know we can do better.

This year when I was shopping for lunchboxes for my daughter I wanted to try to have her have as little trash as possible at school.  After searching for ages I finally found THE ONE.

The Goodbyn.

I love this lunchbox so very much.  It has 5 different compartments separated from each other and there is no need to have anything packed in plastic bags.

Here are some of her recent lunches:

Hawaii rolls and meat and cheese... and a dang granola bar, gotta get on making some of those!

This one is not the best example, I have a granola bar and a piece of leftover valentine candy in there.  Homemade granola bars are on my to do list! Fruit leather too, fruit snacks are the other thing killing me! Those plastic film packages aren’t recyclable!

Better… I did wrap the sandwich in a piece of parchment this day.

The square compartment fits a regular sandwich cut into halves perfectly. My daughter just prefers the hard Spanish bread for her sandwich.  It’s also nice that she packs a LOT more fruit and vegetables.

The middle spot holds a drink container but she prefers to just drink water at lunch.

Her favorite part is the stickers that it comes with to customize your lunch box….

The only downside is the fact that the original size (which this one is) is pretty big and does take up a lot of space in her backpack.  Also its up to me to remember to wash  it or at least wipe it out every day!

So while it isn’t necessary for you to go out and buy THIS lunchbox, try NOT using plastic bags for your lunch! There are SO many cute reusable products out there, get to it!

Valentine’s Day Recap

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Totally phoned it in this Valentine’s Day.

I was planning on getting up early and making the kids a cutesy breakfast of pink heart pancakes… well, I overslept a bit.  Rushing around getting everyone and everything ready for the day and M asks me if I am making a special breakfast. Sorry honey, no!  So she makes a couple of poptarts and right before she eats them I pop over and use a heart cookie cutter on them.

There, there is your super special Valentine’s breakfast.

Then my husband calls me at work to ask me to run home and let the dog out on my lunch break because he wasn’t able to… I run home and see the dog sitting outside the patio door.  I call my husband and ask what the heck is he talking about, the dog is already outside.  He asks where I am and I say right by the door looking at the dog.

Let the dog inside then a few minutes later walk back outside with him with his lunch and see a huge bouquet of flowers laying on the table. Duh. So I called my husband and said oh yeah, saw the flowers. Sorry I am oblivious! He also gave me a new watch which was greatly appreciated because I just busted the crystal out of my watch the day before. Yay!

Was going to make a nice steak dinner for the family but didn’t feel like stopping at the commissary to pick up steak after work. So somehow we had a very polish Valentine dinner. Kielbasa, sauteed cabbage and pierogis.  I don’t even know.  But it was yummy.  We’re planning on going out this weekend for dinner, weekdays are too crazy.

Hope everyone had a lovely day with plenty of chocolate involved!

It’s the little things {spicy & sweet}

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Wrapping up a fun week and just wanted to recap some of the little things that made my week!

First off I did a little Valentine’s decorating, I found this cute printable online.  I love all of the holiday subway art that is free online… I have a frame by my front door and I am planning on just replacing the image according to the holiday/season!

Also found a cute ceramic white heart bowl and filled it with peanut butter m&m’s (terrible, terrible idea, I can’t leave them alone)

I also picked up these super adorable votive holders… I have some red candles in there for the holiday (Yankee Mackintosh) but I think they may find their way into my bathroom when I’m done with them on the entryway table.

Next up a little hot sauce making!  My husband has a habanero habit that was supplied for quite awhile by pepper plant that was growing peppers constantly.  We stuck them in the freezer for a rainy day (or a cold winter’s day).  He generally will eat them straight up (I’ll stick them whole into a pot of rice so they cook without making everything else spicy) but also loves hot sauce.  He had ordered some but half of the bottles broke en route so we wanted to try a homemade recipe.

Out comes a bag of frozen peppers: Chopped of the stem and added them to some cooked carrots, onions, garlic and lime juice.

*For the love of God, make sure you do NOT get any of the juice on your fingers. It does NOT wash off and you will regret it when you rub your eye an hour later… I learned my lesson the hard way a few years ago*

Everything gets tossed in the blender. I left the seeds in for heat, but if I had a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth I would have strained this to get any remaining chunks out.

The finished product! It’s very orange and apparently VERY spicy!

My daughter did also decide to start puking right before her basketball skills assessment this morning… And daddy had taken her. This happened in the gym. On the bleacher. And on the basketball court. Honey, I am so sorry you were on parenting duty this morning and had to deal with it on your own!

Linking up with Lindsey from Hello Hue!

Aisle to Aloha