food...food...food

Poor blog. How I've neglected you.

Lately I feel like I am living, breathing, dreaming FOOD. We've been making some food changes that make me question my sanity. We've been cutting out ALL processed foods (and not just what I used to consider "processed" when I used to say we ate very little processed foods, but all actual processed foods...). Which means I am either in the kitchen or thinking about and planning what I will next make in the kitchen for roughly 16 hours every day... Some of my experiences and recipes will surely make an appearance in the blog in the future, as I try to make sense of what I'm doing and what works and what doesn't...

When I'm not doing kitchen-prep stuff, I feel completely drained. I feel sapped of all energy and motivation to do anything except sit around and feel tired. Not really sure what's going on, but I'm having a hard time of it.

Anyway...it's Friday today and I need to get my house clean, laundry done, food-related stuff planned and started (need to pick up eggs today and start soaking flour for making bread for the weekend), but all I really want to do on this cold grey day is cuddle up on the couch with a book while my kids sit with me watching "Peter Pan" (this may or may not be what is happening currently, minus the book, plus the computer...).

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Product Endorsements

Some days my love for certain little things in my life border on obsession. Here're my latest:


Flipsides!

OhMyGosh. I love these things. Pretzel. Cracker. Do I need to say more?

Library movies

Two weeks free! 4 DVDs at a time! Basically unlimited VHS tapes! One week grace period (Did ya get that? Free movies for 3 weeks!). 10 cent per day late fees! Any kids' movie my kid could want! True love!

Whole Wheat Bread

I finished my second project (well, I guess it's technically the fourth project because I started two others first but haven't finished them yet)! I made whole wheat bread, from scratch, without my bread machine! This is an accomplishment for me because I am a bit yeast bread-challenged. I had practiced making several yeast bread doughs (pretzels, pizza dough, bread, etc) with my bread machine before my big no-machine whole wheat bread debut, which I did yesterday. And guess what?! I succeeded! The bread rose just how it should (both times), I didn't under- or over- cook it, and it looked pretty, too (no bread machine kneader hole in the bottom of the loaf!)! AND-- it tasted great! I mean, really, really great. I've eaten half the (smallish) loaf already, all by myself. I baked one loaf and froze two rolls of dough for later. The recipe I used was super easy and I will definitely make it again and again (recipe will be posted below).

1 down, 100 to go!

Well I just finished the first of my 101 things!!! I am feeling so accomplished (if not a little nauseated from eating the finished- supersweet- product).

So what epic project did I choose to be my first? Cupcakes, naturally!

Party like it's Dia de los Tres Reyes

Whew-ee. That about sums up how I feel today, after this weekend.

Every year, we host a party to wrap up Christmas on (or around) Three Kings Day. We spend way too much money and time to cook up all sorts of Spanish yummies. We invite friends who might appreciate it, and we have a good time. As Three Kings Day was last Wednesday, we had our 4th annual Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos fiesta this weekend!

I felt all sophisticated and child-free for about 23 seconds Saturday evening when I dashed in and out of an old friend's wedding reception, telling him I couldn't stay long because "I have a dinner party going on at home right now that I have to get back to."

bad mommy gone good?

I'm awesome.

Yesterday, I made it out of the house (a miracle in itself) and we made it to Preschool on time. Squeak had a great time and Pixie only got into the cat food twice. After preschool, I was exhausted and my ears were ringing from being around too many little kids that are not my own (we go to a little parents' cooperative preschool in my friend's neighborhood so I don't get to just drop him off and enjoy myself. We're too poor for that kind of fun.). But I let Squeak swing on the tire swing, even though what I really wanted to do was hurry and get home and proclaim nap time for the next 2 hours. Which I did promptly after I took these pictures:

Meal Planning

(New blog post before this one)

In an effort to:
*make my life as a SAHM a little less stressful,
*save money on groceries,
*buy more fresh food and less processed/packaged stuff,
*eat out less,
*have and stick to a food budget,
*and a few other reasons,
I started planning out meals for two weeks at a time when Pipsqueak started eating the same stuff we eat (so it's been awhile that I've been doing this now).