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Ben’s Treehouse Bed

We seriously LOVE having our friends’ kids over. They’ve grown up with our kids and so when they’re together, they just pick up from where they left off last time and play together so well. They know our house rules and follow them (at least as well as our own kids d0) and best of all, they are a great distraction for our kids.

So with the kids good and distracted, we leapt into the final stages of Ben’s treehouse bed. We just had a bit of sanding and polying to do and then we took all the pieces of wood up to his room for assembly. They started out looking like this:  Continue reading “Ben’s Treehouse Bed”

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Ben Speaks

That son of mine. Dang he’s cute. He knows it too and uses it shamelessly to get away with his mischief. Today he is 2 yrs, 9 months old which means he’s having a birthday in 3 months. For an update, I thought I’d share some of the funny things Ben says (there are MANY – I just wish I could remember them all).

Last night at the grocery store, he was riding along with me in the cart and a man near us sneezed. Ben: “Aww, man. You OK?”

Later on, still at the grocery store, he started singing one of Sissy’s favorite tunes. “Down by da baaaay. Where da wattamelons groooow. Back to my home. I didn’t go. Fo if I do. My mutter will say: Did you eva see a moose kissing a goose? Down by da baaaay.” Completely tuneless. Completely adorable.

Lately, all he wants to talk about is “going to the races.” I’m still not sure where this came from, but whenever we get in the car, “Are we goin to da waces?” We had a full-on break down over not going to the races (just to Target) last night.

He is also obsessed with his upcoming  birthday. “I write my name? On my birfday? Wike Sissy? At school?”

At dinner, he is quite opinionated. Sometimes he likes dinner. “I wike dis dinna. Mmmmmmmm!” Sometimes he doesn’t. “Mommy, dis dinner is icky! I no wike dis dinner.”

And he is never afraid to tell us what he wants. He is well known for getting out of bed and coming downstairs all on his own or going up to the fridge or pantry, opening it up and having at it. He will access a container of food (crate of oranges, container of muffins, bag of craisins) and then just leave it in the middle of the kitchen floor. Subtle? Sneaky? He is not. So I tell him that if he leaves the food in Loki’s reach, he will eat it. Ben says, “I share da food wif Woki.” Kudos on the sharing, kid. Tsk on inadvertently feeding the dog 21 muffins.

As funny as he can be, I love the sweet stuff that comes out of his mouth. You can’t help but melt, just a little, even when he’s being totally difficult when he says, “I wuv you, Mama.” Insanely cute, that kid.

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New Chill Chest

Whew! What a weekend. Believe me when I say heading back to work today sounds easy by comparison. But before we get to the weekend, I will tell you about my Thursday night. When we last left our hero (me) she was busy wrangling two kids while her beloved (Javier Matt) was out of town. On the way to pick up the kids to take them to Grammy and Papa’s house on Thursday night, she stopped at home briefly to let the fierce defender of her home (Loki) out for a tinkle break.

So I walk into the kitchen from the garage and immediately spot a ginormous puddle behind our fridge. Joy. With some technical support by phone, I turned off the water that feeds our ice maker and cleaned up the mess. I noticed, however, that our lovely wood floors (a mere year old!) were warped. Yay. This is not the first time this has happened. See the line into the fridge will sometimes freeze up, then the water has nowhere to go and it backs up and floods. Apparently a new hose, etc. is not an option because the failure is where it couples to the fridge. Had Matt been home, we probably wouldn’t have had such a big mess because it would have been caught sooner, but murphy’s law and all that.

As much as I hate to get rid of a perfectly good (otherwise) appliance, we do not want the sucker flooding the house while we’re on vacation, etc. (and of course we could turn it off, but it’s another thing to remember before you leave town and let’s face it – a challenge sometimes!). So we could keep the old fridge and have no ice-making or get a new one. We are big-time water drinkers and really use our automatic ice, so we opted for a new one. And technically it’s not gone … it will replaced the model from the 70s that graces our garage and that old energy sucker is out the door.

So the new one (similar to photo) will be delivered today. I am very excited for it, not least of which because we got a great deal on it at the scratch-and-dent store. It’s actually new in the box but was 50% off retail, or about $1000 less than we could have gotten it for at Lowes or Home Depot. Man you know you’re getting old when you’re excited about your new REFRIGERATOR.

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Zone Slop

We’re in the midst of another one of those busy weeks that I didn’t plan on … it just sort of cropped up. Meetings, deadlines, travel, child-minding, a funeral (not for us, for our sitter), driving around way too much, sleeping way too little.

All the while, I’ve been keeping up with my ZONE project as best I can. I’d say I’ve been solidly 95% adherent. The hunger is either non-existent or terrible. I’m not exactly sure why it’s fine sometimes and almost intolerable others. But I think it probably makes sense to eat a bit more on days when I burn more calories.

I’ve been impressed with my ability to go without, though. I’ve had virtually nothing sugary since I started. I’m sure it’s really good for me and something I should carry forward when this deal is over. I do miss the carbs like pasta and bread. We eat pretty healthfully on a regular basis and we’ve been able to make some of our favorites zone friendly with little trouble, but on Zone you’re encouraged to make as many of your carbs favorable (like vegetables, fruits, and a few legumes)  as possible and eschew more processed carbs like bread and pasta and rice. So when you do have any of these, the portions are small. Like half a slice of sandwich bread small. Like 1/4 cup of pasta small. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but it is a big adjustment.

I’ve made two more recipes from the Zone Meals in Seconds Cookbook and both were decidedly a disappointment. The first was “Moroccan Chicken Stew” which involved throwing cooked chicken and some random cans of stuff into a stock pot and seasoning it with cinnamon and cumin. Since one of the things was Cream of Chicken Soup (Healthy Request, of course), I should have been very wary from the beginning, but I will use it in a casserole or two, so I went ahead. Loki was bountifully rewarded with sticky gloppy leftovers. The only good part of that meal was that Tabby helped me make it while Matt was on a conference call. Since it pretty much only required opening cans and stirring, she could do most of it and she love it. She of all of us liked it best (except maybe Loki). It’s something I’ve heard before, but need to remember going forward: kids like food more if they have ownership in it.

The other recipe we made was the “Apple Pie Spiced Oatmeal” – pictured above. Basically it’s cooked oats (I always go for steel cut because I like the texture best) with chopped apple, chopped pecans, apple pie spice and protein powder. Therein lies the problem: the protein powder. Through trial and error I’ve discovered that protein powder is best on oatmeal if you add it at the time of consumption. This calls for it before then and it does this weird thing where it kind of curdles up and makes a very bizarre texture. The taste isn’t too bad, but the texture is icky. I also felt like there was way too much protein powder for the amount of oatmeal – I’d rather have some eggs on the side than overload my oatmeal with the powder.

I’m done with 4 of 8 recipes from this cookbook. I plan to make some muffins this weekend, and a Mexican Chicken Chili and then Chicken Tetrazzini and Chicken Minestrone next week. Are you seeing a chickeny theme here? Yea, me too. Good news is we’re about half way done and we’ve both lost some poundage: 4.5 for me, 5 for Matt. Not too shabby.

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Kinder Registration

Today is the big day. Today we drop off her registration for Kindergarten. How is it possible that in just a few short SHORT months she’ll be ready for big girl school. ALL DAY school. It’s crazy!! Hopefully by August I’ll be ready. Tabby of course, would head off tomorrow. She’s thrilled.

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Salmon Tagine


It would be an understatement to say that this was my best photographic work, or even good. Honestly, by the time I “plated” dinner last night, I was done. We spent ALL weekend sanding and polying the pieces of Ben’s bed. And we’re still not done. Probably not even that close. I was achey and grumpy and I didn’t even really want to cook. But we had to eat, so I did. This is why I buy ingredients. I won’t let them go bad and so I find myself in the kitchen even when I don’t want to making dinner.

This Salmon Tagine was the second recipe we tried from Zone Meals in Minutes. I can’t say it was a pretty meal. I probably could have done more with styling, but it was somewhat in the slop category as far as looks go. Luckily the taste was good. My favorite part was the cooked spinach with walnut sauce. YUM. I would have that anytime and it wasn’t too hard to make (though I always blanch a bit at the thought of cleaning the food processor). The salmon was yummy, despite the fact that I overcooked it – things got hectic. But I’m not sure it was so yummy I’d feel compelled to make it again. I really LOVE our Chicken Tagine recipe. This one was a bit more meh. I was tempted to post just the spinach, but I will post the whole since it make a complete Zoned meal (4 4-block meals) with my suggestions for improvement.

The kids and Matt all liked the salmon well enough which is a pretty good endorsement since it was over-cooked. But personally, I thought the spinach was the star.

Ingredients

  • 30 walnut halves, lightly toasted (i.e. rattle them around in a dry frying pan on med-high heat for a few minutes – watch like a hawk so they don’t burn)
  • ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons dried dill
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
  • ½ to 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 ½ cups minced onion
  • 2/3 cup water or chicken stock or broth
  • ¼ cup raisins
  • 12 whole, dried apricots, quartered
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
  • 1 cinnamon stick (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
  • 1 teaspoon peeled, minced fresh ginger root
  • salt
  • two 1-pound bags washed, stemmed, trimmed spinach leaves
  • 4 cups thinly sliced mushrooms

Directions

Place walnuts, vinegar, dill, garlic and hot sauce in food processor and process until smoothish. In a large fry pan, saute onions in olive oil until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add apricots, raisins, minced garlic, ginger and spices with broth or water and then top with salmon. Bring to a low boil and simmer until salmon is done, approx 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a half cup of water (or leftover broth!) in a dutch oven or stock pan. Add spinach and mushrooms and steam until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain if necessary and toss with walnut sauce.

Serve salmon fillets topped with tagine sauce, and spinach on the side.

 

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Ben’s Room WIP

Ben’s room is coming along … slowly. It’s always hard fitting in home improvement projects during the few precious hours you have at home at night during the week, but we are managing!

The room is painted – I really like the color and am so happy we picked it! And we’ve also moved most of his furniture back in there. The old dresser remains in my office. I keep trying to get rid of it and no one is biting. A shame really, it’s very cute! The new storage pieces, from IKEA’s STUVA line, are working out great. He’s got so much more storage than he did before this. And as soon as we can get some things hung on the wall, I can get some stuff cleared out of his closet too.

The yet-to-do list includes:

  • get carpet fixed (scheduled for Monday)
  • rout the baseboard
  • sand and oil the baseboard
  • install the baseboard
  • cut the wood for the bed
  • sand and poly the wood for the bed
  • assemble the bed
  • put it all together
  • hang photos, bulletin board, light
  • install wall decal?

One of the final decisions I’m making is about putting a wall decal behind his bed (like this one or this one or maybe this one or this one). Since it’s a large wide-open (green) space and the bed is treehouseesque, I’m thinking about putting a large tree decal behind his bed. Too much? I can’t decide.

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Tex Mex Meatloaf

Last night we tried the first recipe from Zone Meals in Seconds. I always love it when the first recipe I try from a new cookbook is a winner and this one was a MAJOR winner. Though this is Zone specific, Matt and I both agreed that we would eat it anytime. It’s your basic meatloaf, with a few interesting additions and served with a side of guacamole. Best of all, both kids loved it! Really, what’s not to like?

The full zone recipe has a side salad with romaine (we used baby greens), 1/4 C low fat cheddar per person, thinly sliced celery, shredded carrots and a 1/4 cucumber. Adding the salad makes it a full 4-block Zone meal if you’re interested. I added just a little salsa for dressing. I love me some salsa.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ cup  black beans
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder blend
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon ground red pepper (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon tamari soy sauce (optional)
  • 1/3 cup non-instant rolled oats, uncooked
  • 15 ounces lean ground beef  (ground turkey works too)
  • 2 tablespoons dried onion flakes
  • ½ cup fresh or frozen corn
  • 1 cup minced yellow or red bell pepper
  • 1 cup no-salt diced tomato with jalapeño
  • avocado

Directions

Mix and mash as you would any meatloaf. Place yummy mash in a 9×5 loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 60 to 75 minutes or until thermometer regisiters 160 for beef or 180 for poultry. Mash/chop avocado and season as desired for guacamole (we use chili powder and garlic salt). Serve slices of meatloaf with guacamole. Groan and say “oooh” a lot while eating.

We actually made this the night before and baked it about 15 minutes extra to compensate for the chillier meat temps.

 

 

 

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Chaos!

Our house is in chaos right now. See two things happened in late December and early Janurary:

1. We got a new couch. While I’m very excited about this new couch, our old one is in our living room (which already has its own couch), waiting for a friend to take it away, or failing that, be sold on Craigslist. There are also a few other items that we are getting rid of hanging around in that general vicinity, so the room to your right as you enter our house? Not really a room so much as a furniture dumping ground. Our tree is also still up, somewhere behind there. Cheers!

2. We started work on Ben’s Big Boy Room. Part of that was getting him a new dresser and bookshelf. See, there used to be cabinets in his room because before it was his room, it was an office,

and we needed a dresser/bookshelf arrangement bigger than the old one to hold the stuff that came out of the cabinets when they were removed (shelves are gone too!). The old bookshelves went to a friend, but the old dresser remains, still needing to make its way to Craigslist. But in any case, new dresser, new bookshelf and old dresser are currently residing in my office because they can’t be in Ben’s room because work is on-going. Ben himself is bouncing between his toddler bed in his room and the aero bed in Sissy’s room (where he stays up ’til all hours chatting with Sissy and making mischief – thank God they don’t have to share a room regularly).The room currently looks like this:

Cabinets are gone, shelves too. There is a strip of bare floor against the wall that we’re trying to cover with remnants. No word yet on whether or not this will work. Matt is making new baseboard for the pieces of wall the cabinets were covering and the wall is primed (it will be a darker green AND I don’t have to do any of the painting – yay!). Once all that (baseboard, carpet, painting) is done, we can start building his bed … and of course get his furniture out of my office.

So three rooms of our house (Ben’s room, our living room and my office) are completely unusable. This of course is pushing stuff that needs to go into these rooms into all the other rooms. And I am inundated by STUFF. Obviously, we’re getting rid of the furniture, etc. as fast as possible, but it takes time! Meanwhile, let’s just hope I don’t have a pile of stuff fall over on me. I really can’t handle it right now. 😉

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Entering the Zone

So maybe I mentioned that I’m doing something new to start off the new year. I am heading into THE ZONE. My beloved gym is hosting a fitness challenge running from Jan 9 thru Feb 3. We will be recording our workouts and food choices for that period and tracking what kind of changes we can make in our bodies. We have two ways of eating to choose from: Paleo or The Zone. I chose the Zone, mainly because it seems a bit less restrictive, though I will admit that Paleo intrigues me.

Anyhow, The Zone is a way of eating that advocates adequate protein for your body, based on the amount of lean mass you have, and then a matching portion of good carbohydrates and good fats. It’s not unlimited bacon and cheese and no fruit like with Atkins, but the carbs are pretty limited. I really have no expectations on what I will get out of this, but I want to try it. The Zone authors promise fat loss, weight loss, better mental acuity and generally better health. For that? Why not try it? Coming into the two races I most want to do well in this year, I could definitely use a few less pounds to drag around.

So far it’s just taken me quite a bit longer to get my meals ready for work and to figure out what we’re having for dinner all week, but I think it will get easier as time goes on. The good news is that we already eat healthfully so a lot of the things we normally eat can be made zone-friendly with just a few minor changes, mostly reducing carbs (less or no rice, pasta, bread).

For example, yesterday I ate:

Breakfast

  • 2/3 C oatmeal
  • 1/2 C berries
  • scoop of protein powder
  • 1 T flax seed
  • 2 egg whites

2 Snacks (one morning, one afternoon)

  • half an apple
  • a piece of string cheese

Lunch

  • salad greens
  • a few olives
  • 3 oz of chicken breast
  • 1/2 cup of lentils
  • 1/2 cup of berries

Dinner

Now it just takes some discipline and a hefty dose of planning and execution.