I think Big N tries very hard to give me a heart attack on a daily basis. In the past couple of weeks she has:
1. Fallen at the park causing her front tooth to turn black and a trip to the dentist to learn that fingers crossed the tooth doesn't fall out. And that is a good thing kids have baby teeth, they are the "practice set"
2. Fallen out of bed TWICE, once the night before the dentist appointment, which led to a huge gash in her chin. I have NO CLUE, what she hit her face on, but there was tears and blood.
3. Been stung by a bee, on EACH leg. With that adventure we learned that WD-40 does a great job of taking out the sting and reducing swelling. Thankfully Uncle Bull knew that trick and our adventurous two year old was back at her antics in no time.
From now on I think we are just going to sit at home and do NOTHING. Seriously, my nerves can't take this parenting thing.
To go with this, Little N has:
1. Banged his head off the faucet while we were trying to wash his hands;
2. Fallen into the iron railing trying to stand up using it; and
3. Taken a few good falls in the tub while trying to crawl around Big N and pull the plug out.
Sheesh, where's the bubble wrap when you need it!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Monday Meal - Vegetable Quinoa Salad
I made this salad for my mom's birthday party, and I thought it was pretty good. Having only cooked with Quinoa once before, I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I enjoyed the salad. I'm not sure my farmer brother thought the same, although I can't say for sure if he tried it, or just the look of it turned him away? I combined a few different recipes so here's what I did:
Ingredients:
1 cup Quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups cold water
1 tomato
1/4 cucumber, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lime
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, bring quinoa and water to a boil. Reduce heat, and boil gently for 10 to 15 minutes or until the white germ separates from the seed. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove lid, let cool and fluff with a fork.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumber and pepper. Stir in cooled quinoa.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.
4. Pour over salad and toss to coat.
I sized down the recipe a little bit so I probably didn't need to cook quite so much quinoa, but we'll use it for another meal today so, it won't go to waste.
Ingredients:
1 cup Quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups cold water
1 tomato
1/4 cucumber, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lime
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, bring quinoa and water to a boil. Reduce heat, and boil gently for 10 to 15 minutes or until the white germ separates from the seed. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove lid, let cool and fluff with a fork.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumber and pepper. Stir in cooled quinoa.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.
4. Pour over salad and toss to coat.
I sized down the recipe a little bit so I probably didn't need to cook quite so much quinoa, but we'll use it for another meal today so, it won't go to waste.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Lunch Time Madness
Every day around 11am, I start wondering what the heck we are going to have for lunch as I can feel the kids getting crankier by the minute. Then, I open the fridge and hope and pray there are leftovers from the night before, which is the case about 50% of the time, thank goodness. It's funny that I actually have to look because it seems in the 18 hours that passes between supper and lunch I have completely forgotten what we had the night before and whether or not I put anything in the fridge.
But, the other day, I came across a package of frozen sliders in the grocery store with cute little buns, and thought, that they would taste delicious. It wasn't until I brought them home and looked at them a little longer and realized, hey, sliders are just toddler sized hamburgers, duh! So, now once a week we have awesome hamburgers for lunch. Some day when I feel ambitious, I think I'll make our own sliders out of ground turkey or chicken, but for now, the store bought ones are DELICIOUS! With a little mayo and spinach, a side of cucumbers and apples, it's a healthy enough meal for me and the kids.
P.S. They are soooo good. R gets mad when he finds out we ate them all without him. The other plus is that the ones we bought comes in a pack of 18, and since we only eat 2 or 3 at a time, they will easily last for a month or two.
But, the other day, I came across a package of frozen sliders in the grocery store with cute little buns, and thought, that they would taste delicious. It wasn't until I brought them home and looked at them a little longer and realized, hey, sliders are just toddler sized hamburgers, duh! So, now once a week we have awesome hamburgers for lunch. Some day when I feel ambitious, I think I'll make our own sliders out of ground turkey or chicken, but for now, the store bought ones are DELICIOUS! With a little mayo and spinach, a side of cucumbers and apples, it's a healthy enough meal for me and the kids.
P.S. They are soooo good. R gets mad when he finds out we ate them all without him. The other plus is that the ones we bought comes in a pack of 18, and since we only eat 2 or 3 at a time, they will easily last for a month or two.Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Pasta Jewelry
The day I asked for suggestions on what to do another friend had said that just the other day her daughters had painted pasta and made little gardens out of the shapes. That sounded cute, until I looked in the cupboard and found out we only had penne and spaghetti. Now, spaghetti doesn't lead itself to too many crafts that I'm aware of, but maybe I should google it before I say that. But, I thought the penne could make could necklaces. So, Big N and I set off to paint some pasta. After the paint had thoroughly dried, we thread ribbon threw it and made some beautiful necklaces and bracelets. Since Big N is on a princess kick right now, she thought her jewelry was fantastic.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Toilet Paper Roll Art
After spending WAY too much time trolling blog land recently, I've come across some VERY artistic people that create awesome things without spending a cent. Now, that is my kind of art. I've decided to finally finish the decorating of the master bedroom and have been looking for some nice pieces of art to work with. The only problem with finding great art, is that it usually comes with a price tag, and mat leave doesn't pay a whole heck of a lot, so art on the cheap is definitely a plus.
Big N and I rounded up the cardboard rolls lying around the house (paper towel, toilet paper, wrapping paper, etc.) and cut them into small pieces. Then we spent a good amount of time laying out a design. We plugged in the glue gun to realize that it couldn't reach where we had laid out our design, and with Little N crawling around in our midst, we couldn't have the floor space taken up much longer, so we just started throwing pieces together and gluing fast before we lost any more pieces to Little N's little mouth.
After we had everything glued together, Little N and I took the piece outside to add some spray paint, Big N had lost interest by this point and was busy talking her dad's ear off. So. we added some black spray paint that we had randomly found in the garage, left by the previous owners no doubt. So our "iron" work has some nice Tremclad covering it, I was quite worried that it would get rusty.
Here is our final product:
I think it looks super cute, and definitely adds something to the bedroom. You can hardly tell it's toilet paper rolls in person.
I'll reveal the entire master bedroom update once I finish a couple more projects, which hopefully happens in the next few days as opposed to months, like the kitchen project that I still haven't finished.
Less than three more months of mat leave, time to speed up the projects so I feel like I did everything I could during my time at home.
Big N and I rounded up the cardboard rolls lying around the house (paper towel, toilet paper, wrapping paper, etc.) and cut them into small pieces. Then we spent a good amount of time laying out a design. We plugged in the glue gun to realize that it couldn't reach where we had laid out our design, and with Little N crawling around in our midst, we couldn't have the floor space taken up much longer, so we just started throwing pieces together and gluing fast before we lost any more pieces to Little N's little mouth.
After we had everything glued together, Little N and I took the piece outside to add some spray paint, Big N had lost interest by this point and was busy talking her dad's ear off. So. we added some black spray paint that we had randomly found in the garage, left by the previous owners no doubt. So our "iron" work has some nice Tremclad covering it, I was quite worried that it would get rusty.
Here is our final product:
I think it looks super cute, and definitely adds something to the bedroom. You can hardly tell it's toilet paper rolls in person.I'll reveal the entire master bedroom update once I finish a couple more projects, which hopefully happens in the next few days as opposed to months, like the kitchen project that I still haven't finished.
Less than three more months of mat leave, time to speed up the projects so I feel like I did everything I could during my time at home.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday Meal - Lemon, Spinach and Chickpea Salad
To continue on our summer cooking journey, I stumbled across this recipe and did some adapting to fit our family. It was a super simple summer salad that took minutes to prepare but came up tasting pretty delicious.
Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 lemon
2 cups spinach, chopped
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 lemon
2 cups spinach, chopped
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Pom Pom Caterpillar
I asked a few friends one morning what the kids and I should do for a craft one day, and the first response was to glue some pom poms onto Popsicle sticks. Yes, we could do that I thought. Then, I started looking at our craft supplies and it appeared we were out of pom poms, Big N has a good habit of leaving them on the floor, where I promptly pick them up and throw them out before Little N has a chance to eat them.
But, I'm on mat leave, and we have nothing but time on our hands most days, so why not make our own pom poms, which I vaguely remember my sister doing when we were 12. I don't think I ever got into pom pom making. So, after a quick google search did not yield the results I was looking for, I made it up.
We cut a circle out of a piece of cardboard, then cut a line half way through the circle which started a smaller circle on the inside. We then went around, and around, and around with some yarn until we got what I assumed to be enough yarn to be a ball. We then carefully cut the yarn all along the cardboard being careful not to drop it. We took two pieces of yarn and tied it around the middle of each side of the cardboard and pulled out the cardboard form.
We quickly learned that what appeared to be enough yarn is actually no where near enough to make a nice ball shape, but it wasn't horrible.
But, I'm on mat leave, and we have nothing but time on our hands most days, so why not make our own pom poms, which I vaguely remember my sister doing when we were 12. I don't think I ever got into pom pom making. So, after a quick google search did not yield the results I was looking for, I made it up.
We cut a circle out of a piece of cardboard, then cut a line half way through the circle which started a smaller circle on the inside. We then went around, and around, and around with some yarn until we got what I assumed to be enough yarn to be a ball. We then carefully cut the yarn all along the cardboard being careful not to drop it. We took two pieces of yarn and tied it around the middle of each side of the cardboard and pulled out the cardboard form.
We quickly learned that what appeared to be enough yarn is actually no where near enough to make a nice ball shape, but it wasn't horrible.
Now because we had it in our heads that we were making a caterpillar we needed some more yarn pom poms. This is where things get tricky. Two year olds have enough attention span to make one ball, three balls is asking a lot. So, I showed the kids how to throw the ball to each other and quickly completed one more ball. Then I showed them how to try and juggle and sped through a third ball.
We attached all our balls onto half of a paper towel roll, added some eyes and antennae and had one super cute caterpillar. The kids thought he was nice, but had definitely lost interest by the end. Oh well, I still think he's cute. 
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