My Funk

The beginning of this week I was in a deep funk. I mean deep. I don't even really know why. Maybe it's because I woke up on Tuesday with a crazy bad headache that I'm blaming on the dry air and no sun. Maybe it's because the excitement of Christmas is over and now it is just winter..blah. Maybe it's that I broke yet another glass..

this is becoming a weekly habit. Maybe it's because I had been working on a grocery list for 3 days and still couldn't come up with anything that sounded good because it is 13 degrees out and I don't want to eat winter food.

Maybe it's because the princess has a cold and has been fu-ssy. Or maybe it's because I threw a tantrum in front of the kids (and I try really hard not to do that), then Maddox knocked over the fruit bowl and exclaimed "Ugh! What the heck?!" Hmm..I wonder where he heard that? Well that was it, I was done being in my funk and done getting frustrated over little things that don't matter and that I can't change anyway. Plus I'm lucky enough to have a superhero in the family to help me out when I need it.

"Super Duper Maddox to the rescue!" His words..not mine.

Once I made up my mind to get out of my funk everything came together and I used the spilled fruit to make a special breakfast for my special squishies. It's my barely adapted version of my favorite food lady's Apple Granola Crisp over at Smitten Kitchen and it was delish.

Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp

3 lbs. apples (i used a mix of granny smith and gala because I wanted it tart)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 stick of butter (i used salted, i always use salted)

1/4 cup of honey

1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour (you could use all purpose)

2 cups oats

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 400*.

Peel your apples, or not. I peeled about half of mine but I wanted some skin because that's my favorite part.

Chop the apples into medium sized pieces.

Toss all the chopped apple into a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Add the cinnamon, cornstarch, sugar, and salt all on top of the apples.

Stir it all up and set aside.

In a medium saucepan melt the butter and honey together. I have a little tip for you. To make sticky things like honey come out of a measuring cup oh so easily, spray the measuring cup with nonstick spray first.

To the butter and honey, add oats, flour, almonds and coconut.

Stir it around and clumps will start to form just a little.

Spread granola mixture over the apples and sprinkle with a few pinches of sugar if you want. Then pop it in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Start checking it around 30 minutes for overbrowning and cover it if it is. Uncover it about 5 minutes before you take it out to let the top recrisp.

Take a nap on the floor with your much adored pillow pet while you wait.

Let the crisp cool and top it with yogurt.

It was delish and a pretty perfect breakfast for a 13 degree morning!

Lunch Date

Maddox and Bella have made some new friends.












Meet Pooh and Pookie, the new obsessions in their lives. I'm not sure how this happened, we've had these bears since before Maddox was born but for some reason Maddox dug them out of his animal pile, dressed them and gave them names, and they've been taken everywhere we go ever since. Every time we leave the house they have to get bundled up. Hats, socks and shoes, sweaters, etc. Luckily we have a lot of little baby clothes. Although Bella prefers Pookie to share her current wardrobe.

Earlier in the week Maddox was hungry (as always) so I started rambling off the usual:

"How about an Apple?"

"I don't eat apples anymore."

"An orange?"

"I don't eat oranges anymore either!"

"That's news to me, but ok. How about a banana?"

"Moooom, remember! Me and Bella don't ever finish our bananas and we just leave them on the table and waste them so we don't eat them anymore!"

"Ohhhh, right."

"Exaaaaactly!"

"Ok, so how about some noodle-y chicken soup?"

"Ok, and Pooh and Pookie want some too!"



Super Quick and Easy Noodle-y Chicken Soup
I'm pretty sure that most people know how to make chicken soup but I also know a lot of people still use canned soup even though a simple chicken noodle soup is easy to make if you just keep a few things on hand. We don't eat much chicken but I had just roasted one the day before and used the leftovers. You could also make this a veggie soup by using veggie stock in place of chicken stock, nix the cooked chicken and throw in some extra veggies.

4+ cups chicken stock or veggie stock (I usually get Pacific brand because it doesn't have MSG and it's free range)
1 cup cooked chicken, diced
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped small
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 package whole wheat spaghetti noodles, broken in half
1/2 cup frozen peas


In a medium saucepan saute the carrots, onions, and celery in olive oil until softened just a little. Add the thyme, some salt and pepper. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add pasta and boil for about 8 min. or according to time on package.

About 2 minutes before the pasta cook time is up, stir in the diced chicken and peas.

It's as easy as that!

Bella and Pookie approved.

Maddox and nakey Pooh approved too. Pooh ate so much that he was able to balance a fork on his full tum! Maddox is such the proud Papa. Now go get dressed Pooh, it's cold outside and I'm sure you'll be joining us on our errands!

Christmas Cookies

I had a little post planned for today. It was about all the Christmas cookies we've been baking and it included a recipe. Then this morning at 6 a.m. while I was putting away dishes I came upon this.

It's not real, but a 6 a.m. it sure looked real. And I am pretty certain that my little scare took 5 years off of my life. I'm also pretty certain that I know who's behind this.

Still think she's innocent? Don't be so sure. Yesterday, while I was making dinner (also known as not giving my sweet princess her much needed adoration and constant attention) I caught her out of the corner of my eye walking around the kitchen nonchalantly carrying the mouse. Innocent, I think not.

Ok, on to the originally planned post..cookies! We've been getting ready for Christmas.

We cut down our tree. I don't think we'll be making this a yearly event. I'm pretty sure I got frostbite and I can't stop thinking of The Lorax.


We've been doing Christmas projects.

And of course, we've been making cookies..

lots..

and lots..


of cookies. Maddox wanted gingerbread dinosaurs instead of gingerbread men. We still haven't decorated them. I am not a big fan of gingerbread or molasses-ey cookies so I didn't want an actual gingerbread cookie recipe. After a lot of searching I found this one and made a few changes.

Ginger Spice Dinosaurs

Adapted from Whimsical Bakehouse

3 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1-2 teaspoons ground ginger (I used 1 b/c I'm not big on the ginger-y flavor)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 stick butter

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Whisk together dry ingredients. In a small saucepan, melt together butter, honey and brown sugar. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture and beat with mixer until dough forms. This dough is quite gooey. Plop the gooey dough onto a piece of saran wrap.

Maddox called it his dough baby.

He didn't want me to put it in the fridge to let it chill. He just wanted to keep loving on it.

I let Maddox's dough baby chill overnight and then it had to sit out for about 2 hours the next day before it was soft enough to roll out. I would suggest only chilling it for an hour and then check it's firmness.

Roll out the dough and cut out your cookies.

Bake at 350*F on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for 12-15 minutes. These harden a lot after cooling so be careful not to over bake! I would start checking them around 10 minutes.

After the dinosaurs we made our family out of cookies. I don't think I'm going to be able to bring myself to let them get eaten. I guess we'll just have to use them for ornaments on our Lorax tree.

Gingerbread Houses

We've been doing A LOT of baking around here. I mean, tis the season, right? The kids don't seem to mind.

I'm actually pretty sure they love it. Look how innocent she looks. Who does she think she's fooling?! Oh, that's right, everyone.

Last week we made some gingerbread houses, which can actually turn into a pretty long process with a lot of waiting involved.

Bella got impatient and started gnawing the legs off poor little Gingy. See, she's not as innocent as she would like you to believe!

When it was finally time to decorate the kids both got little graham cracker cottages to decorate and Maddox helped me with the bigger gingerbread houses.

Bella was doing more eating than decorating.

That's right, show 'em the real you, my sweet little princess.

I was so proud of their little houses. They did them all by theirselves and I think they turned out really good!

And that's Bella's little cottage in the middle with it's two remaining little m&m's..so cute..right?

Happy Birthday!

Happy LATE birthday Papi...
thank you for being so patient with me, for the extremely hard worker you are, for my 10 minutes, for all you do for our little family, for having all the answers to all of Maddox's many, many questions and for being the best dad and husband ever. We love you SO much!!

Home again

We've been on vacation.

We went back to Georgia for my big brother's wedding. We got to see friends and family, spend time at the beach and eat good food.

Then there was the wedding.

Maddox was the cutest ring bearer ever,

Bella ate her weight in grapes the size of her fist,

And we all got to eat some really good food. It was awesome.

I'm pretty sure Bella was having quite the fist-sized grape hangover the next morning. She parties hard.

It was ridiculously hard to go from this..

to this. Yep, ridiculous. But after two weeks home we're finally settled back into our little routine, it is December (my favorite month besides April), we are getting ready for Christmas and I'm pretty sure we're going to have a white one and I'm definately sure we're going to eat some good food. :)