"Delightfully Delicious"

Today we had our first family outing to the donut shop! One of Daylight's Donuts slogans is "Delightfully Delicious" and it was! It was fun to see all the old men coming in who come everyday. One gentleman said that he had been coming everyday for 30 years! I don't think that we will be doing that. But it was fun for a Saturday morning, and Izzy loved the blueberry donut!!!

Hummus

I have descovered Hummus! I have known that it existed, but have not usually been a fan of it. But when I had some garlic hummus at a friends that was delicious, I decided to buy my own. It has opened a whole bunch of meal ideas for Izzy as well, because he loves it too. I was especially joyful today when I realized I was out of mayo and needed to make some egg salad for him to eat. No, that is not something to be joyful about, but my remedy was! Instead of mayo I decided to use hummus to mix with it. It was great! I tasted it because I felt bad making my son eat it when I didn't even know if it was good or not. But it was! The consistency was great, and for sure a lot healthier. I felt like I should teach a health class or something just for that one creative solution! Try it and if you are a hummus lover, you will not be disappointed!

compromise

I have a son who will not eat vegetables. It has been such a struggle until...I decided to get smart. Don't get me wrong, I still make him take one bite even if it means forcing it into his mouth, because sometimes he thinks he doesn't like it and then when he tates it, he finds out he does. But to be able to get more veggies in him I resorted to my favorite cookbook right now. It is called Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. She has kid friendly recipes that have certain veggies hidden in them. She has tested, and retested these and says they are the best of the best. I have tried the chicken nuggest with brocoli, mozzarella sticks with cauliflower, pancakes with sweet potatoes, pita pizzas with spinach, applesauce muffins with carrots, and my personal favorite...Macaroni and cheese with cauliflower! It is the best homemade mac and cheese ever! I am so thrilled with this book and even excited to cook some meals for us grown-ups out of it. Everything I have cooked has been really yummy and Israel has eaten them up! He is eating veggies and he doesn't even know it!!!!

Tid Bits

It is 10:30 at night, Joel is snoring beside me, and I should be asleep also, but just HAD to write before I forgot what I wanted to write about. I just had some little things that I wanted to record that I am going through at this time in my life. Really important stuff (just kidding). So here goes.

1. I am LOVIN' me some oreos!!! I am on an oreo kick. I love a double stuffed oreo and a little glass of milk at night to end my day. It is the perfect blend of sweetness and creamy smoothness. I love it! I didn't always love oreos, and infact I used to just eat the white stuff, but since I got pregnant with Izzy, I haven't liked icecream that much, and we had some oreos laying around the house, it sounded good, and I have been hooked every since! But I just been introduced to the third love of my life (first being Joel and then Izzy). It is the oreo pizza from Mazzio's. Oh. My. Goodness. Heaven in my mouth!!! Thank you Chris for bringing that to dinner tonight!

2. For some reason I love falling asleep all cuddled up with Joel on the couch while we are watching a movie, or tv. There is something so comforting about it. Of course if it is a movie that we have never seen and it is exciting enough to keep this mama awake, then I stay awake, but otherwise I love the drowsy feeling I get and the warmth of the blanket and Joel's big arms around me, and the feeling that nothing in the world could go wrong and difting off into dream land. The Olympics were on the past two weeks and we would stay up till midnight, watching...let me rephrase that...Joel would watch, I would drift in and out. But I LOVED it! I looked forward to it each night.

3. Lately I have been food processing everything I can think of that Izzy might like to eat. Last night I blended up tuna with an egg...he wasn't too fond of that. But he ate it a little better when I put some quacamoli in it :), and I even blended up some salad! He didn't like it, so I ate it. It was still crunchy because it had croutons. But tonight was a hit. I had cooked a corn beef brisquet in the crockpot all day and made some mashed pot. and some green beans. So I threw a little bit of all of that in the food processor and it came out perfectly blended and the perfect texture. HE DEVOURED IT! Just like his dad. I am playing a guessing game here trying to figure out what he will eat and trying to have them be as healthy as possible. If anyone has some good suggestions on what to feed a 9 month old who refuses to eat baby food, but is still not too crazy about some textures, tell me!

Valentine's Day!

I really wanted to do valentine goody bags for my nieces and nephews this year and for my sisters, and mom (okay, everyone) so I was just going to go pick up some conversation hearts and tie them up all cute in a plastic bag. But then I had a better idea. I would use the sugar cookie dough that was taking up space in my fridge to make cute little heart cookies that I could ice and put sprinkles on and it would be more fun, and a lot cuter. (I know...that is not a word). Sunday morning (valentine's day) Israel had a cold, it was snowing, so we thought it was a perfect day to stay home from church, so I decided to make my cookies. I had so much fun but wished all the while that Izzy was helping me, tasting the dough, and licking the spoons full of icing! I look forward to next year when he will be able to help me cut out the cookies and put the sprinkles on and add his little touch to the whole project. They turned out great and here is a picture to prove it!

Sneaky...like a fish

Last Friday I sat Israel down to eat some lunch. He has been doing pretty good with eating food, but for the past few days he has acted disinterested. So I was trying to feed him some green beans and some stew. Well, he didn't want anything to do with it. The more I said to open his mouth the more he pressed his lips closed. So finally I got him out of his chair thinking that he just might not be hungry. A few min. later I decided to try again. Same thing. So instead of giving up, because he was probably hungry and just not liking the food I was feeding him. So I pulled out the yogurt. He LOVES yogurt! I put a little bit of green beans on the spoon and then a tiny bit of yogurt on the end so that would be the first thing that he tasted. It worked!!!! He ate it. I would feed it to him that way, and then try some beans by themselves and he would start to cry. Distgusting? Yes, but it got some veggies in him!

A Snowy Tradition

If you know me and my family, you know that we have a lot of traditions. Mainly at Christmas time, but we also have little things all year round that are fun to do. Megan started this one way back when, and we have tried to keep the tradition going (or at least I have) even when she left and got married. Every time it snowed she would go out and get Mac and Cheese and Hot dogs! Every snowy day I remember in my childhood had mac and cheese. So today on this cold snowy day, we are fixing mac and cheese! I am so hungry so I hope this water boils quickly!

What do you do to make your snowed in days fun!