A healthy recipe....

Like I said in my earlier post, I've eaten enough junk this summer to last me for quite some time. I usually do try to get good food in this family and we often have meatless meals, or fish, or whole grains and we always have some veggies....but looking at it from an overall nutrition standpoint for the entire week, I can see we still get too much sugar and fat and not enough fruit and veggies.

Since I control much of what comes in this house....and much of what goes in their bellies, I realized that I need to be the one to take the plunge and just stock up on the good stuff. The past few days have been going well and no one has revolted.....yet. Well...K is daydreaming of junk food a lot, but she probably did that before and just didn't tell me about it.

Having said all that, I did allow one ice cream purchase today for the whole family to share. Hey...I'm keeping it real. We are not going to go to the extreme here. Just overall healthier is the goal. :) I've been looking for recipes and have copied quite a few to try later. I did want to share a recipe for Easy Hummus. I found one online and tweaked it. A common ingredient in hummus is tahini and while I do have tahini in the pantry I don't really love tahini. K definitely doesn't care for it, so I made it without. It was good....really good!! Best part...K loved it.

Try it out for yourself.

1-15 ounce can of garbanzo beans, drained
(reserve liquid)
2 cloves of Garlic(or less if you don't like it real garlicy)
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine everything in a blender or food processor. Blend on low speed and slowly add liquid from beans, if needed, to reach desired consistency.

I used raw veggies and whole grain crackers as dippers.
A healthy recipe for a quick snack or appetizer.
Enjoy!!

it's about time....

After a summer of too much of this.....

and too much of that...

I've decided it's about time to start eating healthier!!

I brought this in earlier this week from our garden. The green beans were delicious steamed. They didn't need any butter or salt....they were perfect. I took the basil and made a pesto dip and cut up raw zucchini to dip into it. YUM! Then I used a cucumber and the large tomato to make a bowl of tabbouleh and a small bowl of cucumber salad for K. These were all the side dishes to compliment my roasted chicken. A healthy dinner, but one that didn't lack taste. I plan to share some recipes and keep myself on track here as we strive to eat less processed junk and more whole foods.

Sometimes...

...cuddling up and watching cartoons with your cousin makes the day seem brighter.

wipeout...

On a recent trip, K got to spend some time in the ocean with her boogie board. It was low tide, but there was still plenty of fun. She patiently waited for waves to come....

Some of these waves brought her right up to the shore

and some of these waves....

DID NOT!!!

First Day....

We usually start school at the beginning of August. Now try to imagine all the feelings running through me as it's mid-August and I don't even have all my curriculum! It's on order and should be here this week...whew! However, I was going all kinds of nuts the past few weeks and decided we would start today. Yes, today would be the first day of the 2009-2010 school year. :)

Last week, I spent extra attention on the house and all the little fine details...like laundry! I wanted the week to start off on the right foot. No need for me to be trying to juggle back to school routine and piles of stinky laundry.

I labored on a new system...a schedule of sorts. I'll report back at the end of the week on that...but I have high hopes. I also decided that since we have some important things coming up in the next few weeks that will interrupt our daily schedule, that we would start with an abbreviated schedule. That and the fact that not everything is here, yet!! We are covering most subjects, but leaving out history, science and art until mid-September.

Yesterday, we spent some time with family swimming and visiting and eating dinner together. It was a beautiful day, but I was a bit eager to get home and finish up some of those fine details. I love the first day of school and even though K was trying her best to be very cool about the whole thing, I knew DEEP DOWN she was excited, too.

So, I got home and started the last load of laundry and made myself clean the kitchen before bed. It was rough...but I knew that starting the day with a clean kitchen was an important step to a great first day.

The plan was to get moving early, have breakfast together, take some pictures and to get started. That was the plan....you know how PLANS go, right?

We got up 30 minutes later then I was hoping. Then we found out the dog had gotten out of the back yard and was walking down the street....so we had to chase him down. It really wasn't difficult...he is old and seriously wanted to come in and have water and his morning treat. In fact, looking back I actually heard him barking on the front porch while I was still laying in bed. ;) I heard him and thought..."WOW, that bark sounds really close." So really all along he was wanting to come in...but somehow saying "we chased him down" sounds more productive. So, let's stick to that version! We chased the dog down and then started breakfast. This was around the time that I found out K was running a temperature. Yea, way to throw a curve ball into our PLANS!

However, like I suspected....DEEP DOWN she REALLY was excited about the first day, meaning we were moving ahead like planned. I'm so glad I stayed up last night cleaning the kitchen, because DEEP DOWN I know that's the only reason why she felt like starting school today.

Let's take a look at our first day....

Here's a look at our table in our school room. Doesn't it just scream, "I'm ready for the first day of school?"

I've assembled the cast of characters in our 'first day of school breakfast'. Since I used Trader Joe's Multigrain Mix with no preservatives added, I had to add some chocolate chips...to make it healthy. Ok...really the mix is wonderful on it's own....but it IS the first day of school!

See...I knew she was excited about school.

Truth...I got her laughing about something else and snapped a picture.
Notice the thermometer... temp. 100


Already on her math.
The cards are part of the new system.
Notice the thermometer....temp. 100.9



Our first day went very well in spite of lazy bones, escaped dogs and fevers!!

flippin' for joy....

What has K flippin' for joy?

Well, because it looks like we can get pictures from another file on here. I may not be able to share our beach trip, but I AM back in business.

UGH...

Well, being unable to put pictures on here has been quite a downer!! All I can get are pictures that have the bottom half cut off or some weird color. Oh well...life goes on.

We've had quite a busy summer. So busy it flew by. I hate when that happens. Hopefully someday I'll be able to share some of the photo highlights here.

I'm working on eating healthier less processed foods. Have a few yummy recipes up my sleeve. :) It's been hard...when certain "unhealthy" products know me by name!

We're gearing up for school. In fact, next Monday we start. I plan to share a lot here about that....like I always do.

Gosh, I hope the photo thing starts working for me SOON!!!