Snow and Quinoa Oatmeal

Today we woke up to snow! Snow on November 6th, hmmm, it is very pretty, but I think fall needs to last a little longer in my book.

The kids ran to the window and Evie couldn't stop staring at the snow on the ground.  It was pretty darn cute.

Then we ate a nice hearty breakfast of quinoa and steel cuts oats, a new recipe that I made last night. I always make my oatmeal usually the night before and make a huge batch of it and we eat it all week. Just scoop some in a bowl and warm it up, add whatever (honey, fruit, maple syrup) and then soy milk. Evie LOVES it. She literally wakes up every single morning and screams "oatmeal!!!" until it is ready.  I have started adding different things to power it up, such as ground flax seeds, chia, wheat germ, whatever I have on hand. Last night I tried quinoa. We eat quinoa once in a while but always for dinner, never breakfast. I have a huge bag of it from Costco so I found a recipe to add it to oatmeal, apparently it is what some people have been doing for awhile. Here is the recipe I used, though I didn't add the nuts and I doubled it which made a lot. Maybe too much. Next time I will leave out the raisins and the apples too, my kids didn't like them in there and honestly I wasn't a fan either. We eat plenty of both of those things any way!

Quinoa and Oatmeal Recipe (Serves 4)

Ingredients:        

1/2 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup quinoa (well rinsed)
1 apple, cored and coarse chopped (unpeeled)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons raisins or 2 tablespoons dried blueberries, and or 2 tablespoons dried cranberries
2 tablespoons walnuts, toasted and rough chopped
2 cups water

Directions:

1.  Mix all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 20-30 minutes. Depending on size and juiciness of the apple you may need more liquid. Adjust accordingly, by adding water or juice.
2.  Stir and serve with raw honey, and soy milk.

Saturday Mornings at the Home Depot

We recently discovered that the first Saturday of every month the Home Depot has a free little workshop for kids.  I took both the kids myself for the first time in October where they made little wooden airplanes that they got to hammer and paint themselves. They loved it, so we went again as a family this time for the first Saturday in November to build little wooden boats. They get their own little apron with their name on it and a pin for each project they make. It's fun to watch them enjoy making something with a little help from mom and dad. We will definitely be going again in December.

Trick or Treat Flashback

That was then....

This is now!

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween is really such a fun holiday now that we have kids. They get so excited to dress up and go trick or treating. Last year we discovered that our street was the trick or treat jackpot. Everyone goes above and beyond to decorate and hand out candy to the little trick or treaters. We also discovered that the head brew master for Surly beer lives on our street just a few blocks up and hands out a special Surly home brew as a treat for the adults. Their house is completely decked out with lights and smoke machines and the lady dresses up as a witch with a huge cauldron filled with treats for the kids. It's our new trick or treating destination, even if it means letting the kids eat some candy on the way!

We started out the day with Miles' preschool Halloween program. The kids got to bring their costumes to school which they wore for their little performance. They sang all their fall and Halloween songs for us. It was adorable as usual, and this year a little more pleasant for Tim and I, as Evie actually sat and behaved while the kids sang.

Chosen to be a little pumpkin for the 5 Little Pumpkins Song

Having fun with Daddy at school!

Happy Halloween!

Edamame Hummus

I have been trying really hard to make at least 1-2 new recipes a week. I used to do this before Evie was born and it made me feel better about myself somehow. Being a stay at home mom has it's challenges, and let's just be honest, sometimes its just downright hard to have much motivation to do much of anything else on top of all the daily tasks, but food is so important to me and my family and we try really hard to eat most of our meals at home. I just feel so much better knowing I made something healthy for my family to eat, so I am trying to really make it a top priority again.

This week I made Edamame Hummus. I thought it was delicious. Evie and I practically fought over the stuff, while Miles wouldn't even give it a try (he's 4 and very opinionated right now when it comes to food) and Tim had a few bites and said it was 'pretty good' which I think means, he didn't really like it all that much. But he is still warming up to a lot of my 'healthy' foods so I will cut him some slack.

I have never had my regular old blender not be a decent replacement for a food processor, but in this case it did not do the trick at all, and I had to scrape the ingredients into my Mini-Cuisinart Processor (which I love by the way). I also didn't have any coriander on hand so I skipped that, and we ate it warm with some warmed up naan bread. I preferred it warm, it almost tasted creamy and cheesey to me....it was also good with carrot sticks.


http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/edamame-hummus-recipe/index.html

Leaf Piles

This year

Last year

Wow what a difference a year makes when you have little kids. Last year at this time Evie wasn't walking yet, she just scooted around on her butt while Miles jumped in the leaf piles that I was raking up. This year they were both jumping together and running and raking and having a blast. 

Linden Hills Hay Day

Our neighborhood continues to win us over. There are always little events in the 'village' of Linden Hills. Yesterday was the annual Hay Day Halloween event, where families bring their little kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes for some trick or treating and festive fun. The shops of Linden Hills really take part and hand out treats and/or have projects for the kids to do. We made witch wands at Heartfelt and brunched at Tilia one of our favorite restaurants. It was the very first time Tim and I have braved going out to brunch with the kids. They did great. I see another brunch in our future!

Our little Spider Man.

Evie peeking out of the tree at Heartfelt

           

First ever family brunch at Tilia.

Happy kids = happy parents.