the girls and their babies!

we were cleaning up the playroom and these girls went baby crazy.
There was rocking, singing, dancing, strollering, slinging, ironing while rocking babies!!!!!
Good thing they like them so much.



i snapped this one because I love that liv is already playing with the dollhouses... she watches everything ira does and then does it. So cute.

Park Day!

Breakfast in the grass.... really really really early in the morning!




and a macaw

snapshots of the day

Just another fun day "stuck" inside....


boredom? no way! she was an underwater explorer-


Ira learned to weave...

Miss Independent

take that better maid....

I was seriously craving better maid bbq chips..... I told my husband andhis answer? "Make some"

his idea was to use the slicer blade on the food processor and the deep fryer.... but I am too lazy to pull all that out.

What I did:

3 potatoes cut in eighths length-wise and then sliced as thin as I could. ( i thought I was HUN GRY- I could've made less ;) )
put into large bowl and toss with EVOO to coat completely, salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, smoked paprika powder, onion powder (although I was out and it was good)
bake on baking sheet at 415degrees for 15 minutes, then high broil for 3 minutes.

take out, toss with 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce and salt to taste.

OH MY GOOD~ness


so good.

so so so good.

***disclaimer- i am pregnant- and crave level was high- equal satisfactory NOT guaranteed****

more transitioning recipes....

I am cutting dairy completely and trying to eventually be vegan again. But the eggs are proving to be the last soldier. I am having a hard time replacing them and getting results I *enjoy* and I am having a hard time convincing myself that cutting eggs is necessary. I buy organic & free range from a place that I think treats their chickens as ethically appropriate as you can in the sonoran desert. I mean, there are lots of coyote roaming these parts and my friends that keep chickens have a hard time keeping them completely free range AND alive.

So I am working on my thought process....


I forgot to take a picture of tuesdays's vegan meal... It was super yummy.

I sauteed zucchini in EVOO and a couple tablespoons of my homemade dressing... which is a mixture of fresh squeezed lime juice, basil, fresh ginger, honey, mustard, balsamic vinegar and evoo. Then I wilted swiss chard in the zucchini and put it all over quinoa. So Good! Even the husband agreed. My ira would not eat the zucchini- she prefers her greens in a shake/smoothie. But liv ate. it. UP. So far the girl actually seems to prefer things like kimchi, sauerkraut, chard, kale and onions. Which is cool with me. Just funny to see a little baby shoving all that in with such excitement and no silly faces.

Last night we started with a salad of mixed spring greens and chopped parsley with heirloom tomatoes and the remainder of my dressing- but there wasnt enough so I added more lime juice and evoo to make more of a vinaigrette.




Then, I made some whole wheat pasta(also vegan... woohoo) and added fresh pesto with some basil I got at farmers market on sunday.



My recipe- which turned out quite well...

1 small bunch fresh basil
3 cloves strong garlic
palmful of raw walnuts
palmful or more of nutritional yeast (to taste)
combine in food processor

then add evoo while processing until at desired consistency.
Salt to taste.

i did not miss the cheese at all. until my dear husband pulled out the aged asiago and added it to his.

Asiago is my favourite cheese. I missed it- but didnt indulge. I will not eat dairy. I will not eat dairy. I will not eat dairy.

:)

Mmmmmmm..... dairy free pancakes... made with hemp milk and coconut oil in replacement of cow milk and butter. I used one egg.... so not vegan *yet*. Baby steps. Used Coconut Oil to cook them in as well. Very Very Yummy!

We also wore mardi gras beads and listened to putumayo kids folk playground.

KALE

about a year or so ago... my friend Julia was eating a kale salad... I never tried it raw... and I had just come from lunch... so I turned down her offer to share and sat wishing I had accepted.

I think about that kale salad all. the. time. Im slightly OCD... its true... but I finally decided that last night was THE night!

I rough chopped the kale. washed it thoroughly. and then massaged the heck out of it with EVOO and sea salt. Then I added half an onion- diced, and the juice of two small limes. I let it marinate in the fridge for about 2 hours.... then salt and peppered to taste.

SO GOOD!

thank you Juila for unknowingly starting a year long obsession that finally culminated last night!

SO- what are some other good ways to eat kale?

night time craft session

right before bedtime ira pulled out some stuff to make cards and puppets.... as it always seems to go... I had just cleaned up and we had settled down for the night.

half and hour later- she was asleep on the couch.... i love how furiously she crafts... lol

~sister love & cuddles~

so lately ira has been setting up little play scenes and then liv follows along... here is live hiding in a cave....


here, ira searched forever to find her old pair of sunglasses.... liv was overjoyed!



Sweet sister cuddles....


THis is the inspiration for posting.... we woke up REALLY early last week... and I was not exactly THRILLED to be awake... I was walking down the hall and heard ira singing a lullaby and this is what I saw when I turned the corner.... (i luckily had my camera on the entertainment center)

I love that these two have each other and love each other so much. what a blessing.

~MT. LEMMON~

We decided to escape the heat and head up the mountain. At 8000 ft it was 74 degrees and SUNNY. Lovely lovely day.








Then we came home and I was craving some sauerkraut.... look who LOVES sauerkraut!!!!


...and look who tried her darnedest to blow up three water balloons at once.

orchard trip!

Here we are arriving in the unexpectedly HOT HOT HOT weather.... we had attempted to get there early... and didnt make it until later in the afternoon...



liv sampling two apples... macintosh... yum.

ira was our seeker....


home, exhausted... and making cobbler....

food struggles

we are moving towards being vegan again.... i thought that when we found the concepts of traditional foods that it was going to heal us all~ cut to months later... more flare ups of eczema and digestive issues and the only thing we can pin down is dairy... and add to that my pregnancy and my natural inability to get down meat in anyway.....

ira is always a vegetarian.. by choice- she has refused meat since she was 13 months and we started offering her a variety of food. She would eat around it and could tell it apart by touch alone.

My husband and I have been veg & vegan off and on throughout the years...

so dairy... well... we cut it out... and then we were out and tired and hungry and I let ira have a piece of cheese.... my word.

within an hour or two- she looked like she had two black eyes! It was sooooo very dramatic and frightening...

Even my "lets not get carried away here" husband said, "no more dairy... ever"

and so it goes.


My point?

Hit me with some awesome vegan recipes, blogs, whatever.... I feel like its so hard at first, because nothing is second nature.

We just devoured a salad with a homemade dressing that was pretty rad.

Fresh grated ginger, basil, lime juice, honey, mustard, balsamic vinegar and EVOO.

now- Im off to marinate & massage some kale and let it sit overnight.

we extended our shade

it has made such a difference in howmuch timewe can spend outside before getting heat stroke :)

New Children's Museum!

The girls had a BLAST!


Keira and her bat lovin- found this HUGE bat!
Water painting on sandstone in the "secret room behind the Foam Noodle Room....


Microscope hooked to a large screen also in teh secret room... it was so cool. Ira put her shirt on it and it was a knitted fabric, jareds shirt was woven. They had lots of fabric samples to look at. One girl put her foot up there, and well.... it was interesting....




THe FOAM NOODLE ROOM! By far the coolest thing ever. When summer ends and the noodles go on sale- jared and I have commited to making one of these on the back patio.... it was awesome.







**sorry the pictures are not the best- we couldnt find the camera so I ttok these all with my phone!**

picnic in the park

with daddy on his lunch break.....





we also found this guy hanging out nearby too....

Library Books

We really picked out some BEAUTIFUL books this past trip... I am sad about returning some of them, and am adding hte ones that were a little too old for ira to our wishlist.

Im just going to share the few that are going back in the morning.

Aesop's Fables
retold by tom paxton

Hansel and Gretel
grimm. illustrated by Dorothee Duntz


I Spy Two Eyes: Numbers in Art


Kokopelli Drum In Belly
Gail E. Haley

The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote

raw zucchini?

I have been told to try it several times.... I had such a hard time conceptualizing it... so I avoided trying it.

Until today.

We just got a bunch of zucchini at the farm on saturday so I figured I would try.

I searched around and was inspired by the city cook

I forgot to take a picture, which is a shame, it was actually quite pretty.

3 small-medium zucchini- peeled
3 ears fresh roasted sweet corn
juice of 1/2 a small lemon
3 tablespoons of EVOO
shredded asiago cheese-to taste

shave the zucchini into long super thin strips, then cut them into half inch segments. Cut the corn from the cob and add it to zucchini. juice the lemon into a cup and add EVOO...whisk together, add to veggies. salt and pepper to taste. I let this sit in the fridge for about a 1/2 hour to an hour to let the flavors marinate. Once ready to serve, shred asiago over and mix together.

Right before my husband took his first bite, he said, "Jen I really do not like raw zucchini, Ive had it before"

I was a little discouraged.... until he ate two bowls...standing at the counter.

As a side, this would maybe satisfy 3-4 people... as part of the main dish or to share, I would double it.

Its Back!

I decided to pull the coffee table out of the office today. We put it in there when liv started to crawl and then just really enjoyed the great explanse of the living room without it.

Recently, however, the need for a coffee table of sorts has become more and more necessary as my belly is expanding at an alarming rate (21weeks!!!!) and I have a little bit of difficulty trying to color and draw lying on the floor.

Of course, we could always use the craft room.... but the a/c does NOT reach back there as well and my craft table is quite high and the kids are up and down and up and down and for ira thats fine... but that means I am lifting liv up and down and up and down.....plus, the afternoon light is perfect.


so its back... and we are off to enjoy a bit of craft time.....