Kim 365

I just thought I would share a recipe tonight. The kids ate toast with honey for supper and were sent to bed a little early, as we tried to make up for a very late night yesterday. Then Clay and I ate our delicious supper in peace, without having to convince little people to like their veggies. I try to get my kids eating healthy stuff, and sometimes it is best for everyone’s sanity to just let them eat a little honey toast and send them to bed.

So here’s the recipe for the sandwiches. Another win in the vegetarian meal department! They were really easy to make, incredibly delicious, and my meat-loving husband was satisfied.

Portobello, Broccoli, and Red Pepper Melts | Martha Stewart
1 small head broccoli, cut into small florets (stalk discarded)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
4 portobello mushrooms (stems removed), sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 red bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 small garlic clove, crushed through a press
4 thick slices country bread
4 ounces Gouda cheese, thinly sliced

Directions:
1. Heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. On a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, toss broccoli with oil; season with salt and pepper. Broil, tossing once or twice, until broccoli begins to char, 4 to 6 minutes.

2. Add mushrooms and bell peppers to sheet; season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Broil, tossing once or twice, until vegetables are tender, 8 to 10 minutes more; set aside.

3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine mayonnaise and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Place bread on a work surface. Dividing evenly, spread with mayonnaise mixture, and top with vegetables, then cheese. Place on baking sheet, and broil until cheese is melted and lightly browned, 2 to 4 minutes.

Over the past few years I have read too much about menu planning. Everyone says it’s simple, so I would read their simple instructions and feel overwhelmed. It’s really not simple when you over-educate yourself, have a million different ideas floating through your head, and have no idea how to streamline them into one workable system.

Weekly meal plans. Bi-weekly meal plans. Bi-weekly meal plans that repeat so you only have to actually plan for 2 weeks every month. Buy everything for the month in one big shopping trip. Have one smaller shopping trip each week. Make big batches. Freeze stuff. Use the crock pot as often as you can. Designate a type of food to each day of the week: Pasta on Monday, Sandwiches on Tuesday, etc.

Seriously.

It’s all good advice, but I wish someone would have just said, “There is not a perfect solution. This is what I do, but don’t try to copy me if it stresses you out. If this method stresses you out, the problem is in the method NOT YOU. You are not defective just because my menu planning strategy isn’t working for you.”

So now that I have said to you what I wish all the perfect mommy bloggers had said to me, I will briefly explain my menu planning strategy to you. You can copy me and I can give you more details if you want, but you don’t have to do this.

For me, I have learned that getting off the computer is a defining factor in my meal planning success. The internet is a wealth of resources, but it is too distracting for me for this task. If I sit down to find recipes online, I will waste hours reading blogs, facebook, and nothing at all. And I won’t have a menu plan when all is said and done, but I will be plenty discouraged and frustrated. Ask Clay if you don’t believe me. I’ll say stupid things like, “I don’t know how to menu plan. It’s so much work. I just can’t figure it out. It’s so overWHELMing!” When I should just be saying, “I have Internet Attention Deficit Disorder! Please help me out of this pit!”

So here’s what I do.
-I made a calendar template in a spreadsheet, so I print a copy, and write my dates in for the month.

-I sit down with real, physical cookbooks and find meals I want to make. If I remember any must-try recipes that I saw on Pinterest, I will find them. Then I get off Pinterest, FAST!

-I write the meals in pencil for the whole month.

-I designate one meal per weekday, and two meals per weekend day.

-I plan for every single day. Meals get switched around often, hence the pencil. This plan is open to change, but typically is not open to eating out, unless it’s written into the plan. By the end of the month I will probably have a week’s worth of meals that I never had a chance to make because of plans changing. Perfect! That makes things even easier when I make the next month’s menu because I have a week of ideas that I can just transfer to the next month.

-I make a shopping list in my phone.

-I do one big grocery shop for the month, which includes up to two weeks worth of produce. It has worked splendidly the last two times that I spend enough on the big shop at Superstore to get the free $25 gift card with purchase, which helps pay for produce and other perishable foods later in the month.

-I do the big shop after the kids go to bed – it is a beautiful thing that Superstore is open late. Then the kids come with me for the smaller weekly trips when we just need to pick up milk, apples, or whatever else we are low on.

Simple, right?
Don’t copy me if you don’t think so.

What is it that causes us to say things we don’t mean? Cultural niceties usually pass my lips without thinking, which is usually not much of a problem. Someone asks how I’m doing, and I reply, “I’m good, thanks. How are you?” It’s just what we say.

Of course I have had moments that I say I’m good when I’m really not. Depending on who’s asking, I might actually say I’m doing terribly. Most of the time though, people don’t really want to know, they are just being polite and saying what is expected. So I give the expected response. It’s the equivalent of exchanging banter about the weather. We’re Canadians and it’s what we do.

How about when you shake someone’s hand. What do you say? Typically I couple a handshake with, “It’s nice to meet you.”

However, it is an awkward moment when you are in the midst of an undesirable introduction, and you utter these words. My brain races. It’s nice to meet you? Why in the world did I say that? It’s not nice to meet you!

It is so much fun to watch these girls grow up together. My little Bailey has her girly side, but also knows how to play with the boys very well. When she gets together with these two cousins of hers though, they are in full-on girly mode. It is so entertaining to hear the change in her voice as she gabs with her gal pals. They gush about toys and hairbands and clothes.

And of course they shriek when their Uncle Steve comes to tease!

I hope they are always such good friends.

I caught these birds last year, and here they are again. A much closer view this time. Mom, you were right – snow geese!

I’m thankful today for good friends.
Friends who are real and transparent, willing to share their stories and are willing to hear ours as well.
Friends who are family thanks to the work Jesus accomplished on the cross.

The hot cross buns you buy in the store never did much for me. They never seemed as sweet as I thought they should be, and always too bitter. And what is the deal with that rubbery icing they use to paint the crosses on?

Since I am convinced that nearly every processed food can taste better if homemade, I decided to bake my own before writing them off. I found this recipe and gave it a whirl.

Aside from the photo looking far from appetizing, I think they were really good!

I am tempted to make these an annual tradition on Good Friday, even though they actually have no Christian significance (who knew?!). Perhaps it will be my secret delight to make the kids eat something they think should taste good – because it has icing on it – but they really don’t enjoy. Markus can plow through a custard filled donut without coming up for air, but a few bites into this he declared it was “too sugary”. Try again, dear boy.

Now if only I could figure out is why my mouth still is zinging from the tiny bit of ground cloves I put in the dough. Maybe for the kids sake and mine, I’ll have to think twice about making these every year.

We are not big on seafood in this house. I know fish is good for me, but most of the time I just cannot get past the smell. The sliminess also wigs me out. And I know that good, fresh fish is not supposed to smell fishy, but when you walk past the seafood department in the grocery store in a land locked city such as Saskatoon, it is enough to make a person green in the gills some days.

When the cook doesn’t believe in what’s on the plate, it’s hard to convince the skeptics sitting around the table. I am trying though!

So for supper tonight we had Farfalle with Salmon, Mint, and Peas. It was so delicious! Clay, not being a salmon fan, declared it the best salmon he has ever had. I don’t know if that means it was top notch or just good…for salmon. Even Bailey ate it. These days, that is saying something.

Ask me to sum up my day in one word? Keys. Ahhh!!!!

The kids and I were so looking forward to visiting some friends this morning. We were all ready to go, I just needed to grab a few things for my purse and find my…keys. They were nowhere to be found. I asked the kids. They didn’t know.

We looked. And looked.

The kids told me that if we didn’t find my keys we would run out of food and not be able to drive to the store to get more, and then we would DIE!!! They’re a little dramatic sometimes.

I informed them that if we couldn’t find the keys, we would not die because Daddy has an extra set, and we would have to get copies made. Bailey was happy with that solution, because she wanted me to get a set of pink keys. She was no help looking after this prospect came up on her radar.

We prayed. Five minutes later, Markus told me he thought Jesus’ answer was ‘no’. This is proof he’s listening when we talk about how Jesus always answers prayer. Whether it be yes, no, or later, he always answers.

After 45 minutes of tearing the house apart and retracing my steps outside since I had the keys yesterday afternoon, I finally gave up. We were going to stop at Tim Hortons for breakfast on the way out of the city, so instead of driving there we walked. It was Bailey’s idea, and a fine one. It was the perfect distraction to keep me from getting too discouraged.

After Clay checked with the neighbours to see if any of them had found them, we were upstairs with the kids. My bedside table looked a little disheveled so I picked up a book to put it back in its place. And shrieked.

I think Clay thought I had seen a spider.

“My keys!!”

I was really hoping they would turn up somewhere that would not make me look like an airhead. Or a sleep deprived mother. But no, that’s exactly what I look like.

At last, a warm day! A “get out of the house and go run!” kind of day.

So run they did!

Markus pulls ahead for the win, Wyatt is a close second, and Bailey a distant third.

In her defence, she was more concerned with being fashionable. I think she won in that department.

Welcome, spring! We’re so glad you’re here!

The realm of introducing solid foods to baby is not one I delight in. My approach to feeding solids has changed each time I’ve had a baby. The first time around I was very much a rule follower. Whatever the powers that be told me to do, that’s what I did. That awful chart that the baby cereal manufacturer gives out, telling you how much cereal your kid should be eating every day? Yeah, I followed that. I was so worried I would do something wrong, so I followed it to the letter. I made baby food, froze everything in cute little cubes. I was prepared!

Fast forward to today with baby number four. There is no rice cereal in my house. Deacon wasn’t even interested in eating until after seven months. He has had a few reactions to the foods I have given him, which has made me very hesitant to offer much of anything. Mum-Mums, rice puffs, applesauce, apple chunks for gumming, bananas, avocados – these are the norm. And the lovely stuff on his table that you gazed upon when you came to read today, that would be lentils and carrots from a soup I made.

I guess the big shift for me is understanding that at this point, solid foods exist to introduce him to new flavours and textures, not to give him the bulk of his nutrition. Food is for learning more than anything right now. What he needs nutritionally right now, he gets from milk, and that sure takes a load of worry off my mind.