Friday, September 14, 2007

It's Friday Again!!

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. My goal is to keep this blog updated on a daily or every-other-day basis.

I have to say last weekend was a huge bomb foodwise. We ate out the whole weekend and it wasn't healthy. This weekend should be better, we don't have as much $ to spend! lol

This week was good. I didn't get in a lot of exercise, but the meals were all healthy. I want to share with you what have been big hits here in my home since I started making our own bread and snacks.

Toddler Approved

1. Oatmeal Bars from the Laptop Lunchbox book. E loves these. They are similar to store bought granola bars, just not as crunchy. He likes them plain or topped with natural PB.
2. Pretzels/breadsticks made from WW pizza dough. Ethan loves these too!
3. Lentil soup with dumplings. E just ate this up and wanted more! He liked the dumplings and the lentils.
4. Rotisserie chicken. Another big hit. He even likes it with hot sauce on it!
5. Granola. I've been making granola from the Hillbilly Housewife site. Mix in some raisins and E is good to go.

Husband approved

1. Whole wheat rolls. I stopped making bread loaves b/c these rolls cover everything. I use them for Ryan's breakfast sandwich. I also use them for mini sandwiches in his Laptop Lunchbox. They are a big hit, from the Hillbilly Housewife site.
2. Pretzels/breadsticks. Ryan liked these a lot as well. He and E ate the vast majority of them. Ryan even suggested putting some cinnamon and sugar on the next batch for a sweet, whole wheat treat. Good idea!
3. Rotisserie chicken and homemade plantains. I've always bought the frozen ones and did fresh ones last night for the first time. They tasted much better and Ryan loved them too. I am going to look for ways to make them healthier.
4. Lentil soup and dumplings. Although Ryan liked the dumplings better.

I made some awesome French bread. It's from the HHW site. I used 3 cups unbleached wheat flour and one cup WW flour. It came out very good. I think I'll up the WW flour next time. I made a grilled cheese sandwich with it yesterday and it was very good.

Tonight I'll be making pizza. Homemade WW crust, canned sauce (my last can!), turkey pepperoni, Bella mushrooms, onions, garlic and cheese. We enjoyed this a lot the last time I made it. E loves pizza. He was asking for it the other day. His tongue comes out of his mouth trying to say the z's and it's really cute. :)

I still have not made the goldfish crackers. Or the brownies, both from the Vegan Lunchbox. My goal is to do them this weekend. Ryan asks about every other day if I made the brownies yet. I also plan on making more pretzels. This time I will use the table to roll them out and hopefully make them a little thinner. I'll do plain, salted and cinn/sugar ones. Yesterday I made more rolls. Today I'll make more granola.

Although we've been eating out WAY to much and it's all processed stuff, I have been keeping to my goal of eating not much processed stuff at home. It is nice going to the grocery store and not having a cart full of prepared foods. It does require some extra effort at home, but it makes me feel really good knowing I made the food.

BTW, I just want to mention how much I like the HHW site. I was cruising through her recipes last night and saw so many I want to try. I actually bought dry milk today! Some of her recipes call for it and we don't drink milk here, so I got it for cooking.

Oh, I also dug my food processor out of the thrift store boxes. I had hardly used it in the past and decided to get rid of it. Than I started reading recipes that use it and decided I needed to get it back out and keep it. lol :)

I've been doing good on keeping up on cleaning. The sewing room is done. I need to get my serger threaded, clean and tested so I can sell it. Than I need to tackle my coverstitch machine, which is still in the box. It does serging and coverstitch. I also need to clean and fool around with my new vintage machine. My regular sewing machine has not been unpacked yet and I think it's in a box in our room. I technically can sew now, since my embroidery machine is unpacked. Maybe I'll start on the AB Madison Bag this weekend. I've been doing crocheting and finished a project last Sunday, that I had to frog. That stinks, but I do plan on finishing it again this weekend. I am doing a trade with someone for crochet food and got two new fruits and veggies patterns from Etsy. I also got a cute Lil' Spookies pattern. Before I do that though I want to get started on the Molly Weasly sweater. I have quite a few projects to get going on! This was much more fun to talk about than cleaning!! :)

Oh! I forgot I have pictures.

Ryan's typical Laptop Lunch

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Peanut butter is a pain to clean out of a container, but if it gets him eating fruit, I'll do it. I love these little bento containers. They're perfect for PB. I also love the closed condiment holders, also good for PB and butter.

Inari Sushi

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I was very excited to try this and did not like it. The tofu shells have a sweet taste to them and I just didn't care for it. But it was worth trying.

And just because he's so cute!

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Awww! :)




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