just like her sister....

more than just a little sweetness.....

ira said,

"take a picture of me eating this awesome snack" (grapes dipped in so delicious coconut yogurt~mango)
I LOVE THIS FACE!!!!

tahini

we decided to continue on our food processing journey....




ira provided the tunes









yum.

we did not roast or toast or cook the sesame seeds at all, and we added no oil.

just pure sesame......

Few exciting moments of my day!

no pictures... but we just had a powerhouse of food invventing/testing/flavor combining....we are trying all kinds of things lately- trying to stillsatisfy our cravings and not use animals products.

First- i made another batch of vegan pesto- first we put it on sprouted grain bread with veganaise and fresh farmers market tomatoes.... super yum.

Next- we made vegan pasta and tossed it in theremaining pesto- lunch for tomorrow for me and girls- solved.

Then, we tossed some organic (V) udon noodles in some braggs liquid aminos and siracha- then added a couple handfuls of Tia To, now this recipe was not my thing.
i think it needs maybe some lime juice, less braggs, and maybe veggie stock?

ALMOND BUTTER

we made almond butter for the first time!

I had no idea it was so easy.... except for the fact that our food processor is from the 70's.... its a beast of a machine that works awesome and is still going strong... however- it overheated after the first 2 cups of almond butter, so I had to take a longish break to let it cool.

5 cups almonds= 16oz. jar of almond butter- plus 3/4c almond butter left over.
Organic raw almonds were on sale for $6.99/lb. and a 16 oz jar of organic raw almond butter was $20.99! talk about savings.


ira added the almonds....






I had zero faith that this process would yield anything but almond flour... I was such a fool-

it took about five full minutes - but it happened!

Lovely friday!

It started with a not so great breakfast-
buckwheat cereal. I just dont think I like the texture at all.
Here it has honey, strawberry puree, almond butter and a few walnuts added... i was trying desperately to add something that would make it better.

I just kept wishing I had oatmeal with all these yummy ingredients.

then we had some friends stop by and that always sparks the kids up!


liv copying her contortionist sister....


Ira in her spaceship....


later- the spaceship became a theatre... a finger puppet theatre for her favourite stuffed cat and dog....


liv was insistent that we dress her in princess gear and walked around listening to everyone's heart with my stethoscope!


princess keira in her throne- she made it all herself- I love it. And can I say how awesome it was to find that dress at a thrift store for $3!?!
After our friends left, we went to the bookstore- I bought myself a new copy of wuthering heights by Emily Brontë because I am a sucker for having multiple copies of books? or because I loved the new artwork on the front? probably a little of both, because I also bought this new copy of pride and prejudice by jane austen

ira loves her new book about unicorns... how sweet is this???

A full thursday!

Liv took a really long nap and so keira and I decided tospend some quality time doingthings that are harder to do when liv is awake and joining in!

We put together a unicorn puzzle.....





Played with a geometric puzzle set that we have had for a while.... Ira was really into this last year and it saved me right after liv was born... she would spend so much time making new designs.

Today we named andlooked up the names of the shapes- that led to a pretty lengthy discussion of trapezoids, parallelograms, hexagons, etc.






Then we made spelt pitas for the first time!
it was so much fun!
The recipe:
3 cups spelt flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbl baking powder
2 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 c.hot water

mix together, form a ball


cover with damp cloth for half an hour


this is keiras own dough covered....lol


roll out to desired thickness... I use parchment paper- less sticking ...


toss into dry pan until bubbles start forming



then flip and cook on other side for maybe a minute....

this recipemade approx 15-20 pitas... depending on size and thickness.

they were super yummy!

Yummy oatmeal!

Our new favourite breakfast!

Oatmeal
Honey
cinnamon
raisins
diced apples

amazement

I tend to say, "thats amazing!" quite often.... but I really mean it. I really really really mean it.

When I said it last night- I meant it A LOT.

We were talking about apples... and I said we need more because we only have enough for her and olive to have one apple for a snack.

Then she says, "oh, and if you want one we need 3 and if daddy wants one we need four. And if we all want more than one we need MANY!"

:)

Just like that. She adds.

No drilling her, no coaxing her to do worksheets, nothing.

She just did it, because it was the topic of conversation and she was interested and capable.

Might seem weird for me to get this excited over addition, but two years ago I really and truly believed that she wouldnt learn anything unless I was very vigilant in teaching it to her. For me to watch it unfold... years before I would have thought to start "teaching her math"... well it is inspiring to ME.

AND, olive said YUMMY and AGUA for the first time last night.

love these kids. love. these. kids.

salad.... mmmmmm

I never can get enough of this particular salad.




spring greens
broccoli sprouts
raw walnuts
balsamic vinegar
evoo
s&p

I added a slice of farmer's market fresh artisan kalmata olive loaf.... super yum.

monday, monday

Yesterday was a doozy.

I ate cheese on sunday, and paid dearly.... I tried to offer up an apology to my stomach....
[that there is two key limes juiced, an inch of freshly grated ginger and sea salt in some water]

it didnt work.


We made a kitty bed, and pretended to be kittens.....


Ira went into the kitchen to wash her hands and then I hear, "mama, I am going to clean so you dont have to while you are sick"
I think... that sounds like trouble.

I walk into the kitchen to find that she has emptied about 1/4 of super concentrated DAWN into the sink and on to the floor.

We take this opportunity to pretend to be maids and scrub the floor and dishes and walls.... anything to use up the dawn instead of just rinsing it away.

[no pics of that... it was a "mama is barely able to stay in the moment and gentle with her loving helpful and sweet sweet sweet daughter" moment]

After many attempts at pretending- mostly me pretending to be okay... I made the girls playdough and laid on the floor until my husband got home.... lucky for me, playdough is a sure fire way to keep my girls completely happy and involved for a long time.

Its in my emergency arsenal bag of tricks.

my recipe is
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. salt
1 1/2 c. water
2 tbl cream of tartar
1 tbl veg oil

combine in pot


stir over medium heat.....



keep stirring until it starts to come together into a ball....


i leave it in the pot and spread it out a bit for about a minute after it turns into a ball... then I knead it for a couple minutes until its at a good consistency.

we added food dye.....





but I couldn't find my rubber gloves and we don't really use plastic baggies, so we only had 3 left from the last playdough session. This pic in no way shows how really really really hot pink my hands are.


Liv decided she was really into cleaning up.



When my husband came home, I was lying on the floor next to them crying a little and snapping pics.... it was by far the funniest scene he has walked into in a while.

His words were, "Why are you on the floor crying and why are your hands neon pink?"

classic.

saturday mornings

we received a surprise package in the mail! Italian cookies from aunt pauline!



Ira was very preoccupied with being a super hero.... but she decided that she could, in fact, stop for just ONE cookie!