Legos!

Here is a game that the boys and I made the other day. Pretty fun. Using dice, everyone just plays all the way through using the 2x8 and 2x4 bricks only, adding and taking them away as shown. The one with the tallest tower at the end wins!

Simple Weekend Treats

We made mini cinnamon rolls last weekend. They kids did them completely by themselves and were so proud. Try them with your little guys, they are easy peasy!




Mini Cinnamon Rolls

• Crescent Rolls
• Butter 
• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Maple Syrup
• Powdered Sugar

Unroll the Crescent rolls and pinch together all of the seams. Brush melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll them up starting at the long end. Slice and put them sideways into a mini muffin pan. Bake as directed on the package maybe for just 8-10 min.  Cut in 2 Tbsp butter into 1 cup powdered sugar, add about 3 tbsp maple syrup and then milk to make it smooth. Spread the icing over top while they are still warm. Walla!

Veggie Recipe!

I was looking last week for non-dairy/ vegetarian recipe ideas. No we aren't vegan. We just eat free-range (which is expensive) and we are cutting dairy (because we think Aeneas might be allergic). AND I am getting tired of my recipes and am ready to purge my collection and start trying some new things. This week I started with this recipe and then adapted it for what suited my tastes and the crisper drawer. Here is what I came up with.

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• Bring the broth and quinoa to a boil, cover and simmer until water is absorbed.

1 cup frozen corn

Simmer in water until done. Drain.

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped

• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 3 cups black beans, rinsed and drained
• Heat the oil in a saucepan adding the onions first, then the garlic and zucchini. Saute until tender. Add the beans, corn and quinoa. 

Season with:

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• 
  
• Garnish with:
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• Chopped avocado
• lime juice squeeze

Serve over tortilla chips...or wrap with lettuce in a tortilla, or serve over salad with crumbled chips and jap-ranch dressing or make a quesadilla with it as the filling. So good and a nice healthy leftover for Mama for the next few days!

Lumpy Soup

There is something about the recipes and food that our parents and grandparents grew up on that has always fascinated me. A few generations before us, the majority of people were still living on farms and working the land. And although I never met Justin's grandparents, the stories of them are endless at the gatherings of family over holidays and vacations. But both with my own great-grandparents growing up in rural Georgia and Justin's South Dakota grandparents, there were so many things that were similar.

It was natural to feed your family with what you had, what you grew, and what you could harvest off of your own land. And with 9 kids, like in the McBrayer family, there were always hungry mouths to feed and little to go around. So for them, lumpy soup was the staple. You could use what you had on the farm and make an enormous batch to feed a crowd. 

I poked around the family looking for pictures and the recipe for this "delicacy" so that we could share with the boys (and you!) what their families in past generations grew up eating. And just like you might imagine, there isn't a recipe. It's the thing you learn leaning over someone's shoulder in the kitchen. There's a lot of  talk that goes like this: Well you use some of this, a handful or two of that and then add water until it looks about right. Well if you weren't there it's difficult to figure that out so I did my best. Here's what I figured out for lumpy soup in case any of you were dying to try it for old times sake.

Grandma (Jeanette) McBrayer

So here is what you will need. Four, eggs, milk and salt! To feed four people I figured you would need the following:

4 cups of milk

1 cup of flour

1 egg

salt to taste.

Add the salt to the milk and warm it on the stove without scalding it. Throw a cup of flour and an egg into a bowl and mix it together to make lumps. Adding more flour until you get something that looks like what you see in the picture. (I broke the lumps out as dime sized pieces and then tossed them in more flour so they wouldn't stick together.)

Then, with the milk close to boiling, drop the lumps into the soup. Let it cook for 5-10 min. 

 
What would go better with lumpy soup than some biscuits (more flour and milk!) cut with one of Grandma McBrayer's actual biscuit cutters (one of my most treasured kitchen tools) that Aunt Peggy gave me as a wedding gift?!?

There you have it! The Boys loved it. What little kid wouldn't? Stay tuned, the next post will be about my Great-Grandmother's Chicken and Dumplings! Another old time favorite.

Hard mornings!

Mornings are hard. There's just no way around it. Despite living literally 4 min from school, we always manage to wait until the last minute to walk out the door and end up with a ticked mom, shuddering kids and a bad start to the day. I don't have the time built in to the morning for Aeneas getting his pants wet in the snow bank on the way out the door and needing a change, or Patrick's seatbelt getting closed in the door that he can't open on account of the child locks or both boys accidently getting in the wrong sides of the truck and then squabbling as they try to pass each other on the floorboard like alley cats. In a perfect world, every morning would be an easy and smooth transition from home to school. YEAH RIGHT. This ain't no perfect world!





So in a fit of parental madness in anticipation of the upcoming Monday, I sat down for about 15 min last Sunday night and threw together this morning chore chart. Lame illustrations but I was in one of those desperate fits that mothers tend to get into. (Go to Etsy for something really cool looking. There's no doubt someone out there has a much more designer way of accomplishing the same thing.) I explained the routine before they went to bed. They were so excited and so was I since that was the first sign that it might actually work.

They woke up a little before I emerged from my room, patiently waiting for breakfast to be served and half their cards already in the envelopes.

Things went so smoothly, I had time to even take their picture in all their crazy cute ready for school states! Success! No telling how long this will last, but for now, mornings at the McBrayer house just got a whole lot easier. And just in time for the time to change!

2 Nights of Dinner: Stuffed Poblanos

I was visiting a friend a few weeks ago and I watched her take last night's dinner, dump it into a blender, add some broth to it and serve it to me for lunch. It was some of the best soups I had ever had and she just whipped it out just like that. She said it was a recipe from Martha Stewart called Stuffed Poblano Peppers. It was so good, the kids scarfed it two nights ago when I served it over rice with a salad and then when I blended the leftovers in the blender for soup and cornbread the next night, they scarfed that too. Keep your eyes out for Poblanos and try it the next time you want something easy, quick and delicious, two days in a row! They are spicy but  mellow out when cooked to something the kids could handle. Justin said he would have liked a little more cheese but with just a cup in the recipe it makes it pretty healthy as it is. I didn't miss it and thought it was the perfect amount. Let me know if you like it.

REAL SIMPLE and delicious

Real Simple had a recipe a while back that was so good and easy I thought I should share it with you. After trying it a few times, I think I have sufficiently altered it enough to make it just right! Here is a link to the original if you are a purest or if you just want to see the picture of it. (The original had too much meat, and grease and not enough noodles in my opinion). It's a true 30 min meal! It would be really good with an Asian Cabbage Salad. Maybe I will post that next.

Thai Pork and Noodle Soup
1/2 lb ground pork 
(you can get free range from the natural food store for $5/lb, spice the other half for a pizza, soup or eggs for the next night!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2-4 scallions, sliced, white and green parts separated
1/2 lb shitake mushrooms, although button are cheaper and work jut fine
4 cups broth
1 Tbsp soy sauce
20 wonton wrappers, cut into 1/2" strips
2 Tbsp lime juice
Sliced red chili pepper or you can spice it up with Siracha, an Asian red chili paste
Cilantro

Brown the pork, breaking it up with a spoon. Once completely cooked, add the minced garlic, ginger and the whites of the onions. Cook 6-8 min


Add the mushrooms and 1/2 tsp salt, cook stirring for 2-3 min more.


Add the broth, soy sauce and 2 cups water to the pan and bring to a boil. Add the wontons one at a time, reduce the heat and simmer for another 2 min or so.


Add the lime juice.


Serve with the sliced chili peppers, cilantro and green onions.