Whole Grain Corn Bread

DanaMama's Whole Grain Corn Bread

2.5 Milk
1.5 cups of Stone Ground Corn Meal

Mix together and set aside for 5 mins. Grease a 9x13 pan, preheat oven to 400

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Tbs Vital Wheat Gluten
1/4 C Coconut oil
1/4 C applesauce
1/4 C honey
2 Eggs
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt

Mix together & add corn/milk mixture. Beat very well. Pour onto greased pan and bake for 30 mins.
Enjoy!!!

Handling the setbacks

Each day as I stay home with my kiddos I strive to complete certain tasks to be able to live in a cleaner environment and also to have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. Without doing these things, they end up as clutter in my mind, an endless list of things I need to get done, clouding my thoughts throughout the day and leading to a more stressful home. Currently with a newborn in the house, this list is rather small but still important. Everyday I need to do dishes, clean up any garbage or food left over from meals and sticky toddler fingers, sweep the kitchen and wipe down the table, the latter happening several times during the course of a day. On my list of things to try to get to are laundry, cleaning up toys, vacuuming, bathrooms and as such they only get accomplished every few days or weekly depending on which chore needs the most attention.

Some days, I get the minimum accomplished or perhaps am even able to get something off of the extended list done but more often than not I'm apologizing to my husband and myself at the end of the day. It usually goes something like this, "Oh, sorry! I meant to get that done today but Toddlerboy was clingy and grumpy, the Bigs were fighting nonstop and I just didn't get to finish it." And then it hit me....

If we look beyond the outward appearance, what did I really accomplish today? Certainly loving and comforting a teething toddler is chock full of importance. Teaching children how to navigate troublesome relationship woes and modeling connection and compromise are infinitely more important than some pile of clothing that needs to be folded. So why is it that at the end of the day, the feeling of accomplishment only comes from completing physical tasks? I believe it is only because of the value I place, and perhaps society at large, on these domestic duties as some sort of measurement of our success as mothers. You can see whether there is a large pile of clothes to be folded or dishes in the sink to be washed but the nurturing of children is often unseen.

So I'm embarking to change my mental attitude towards what constitutes a successful day. Doing such will, I believe, make me feel like less of a failure and also change the whole atmosphere of our home. Instead of feeling as though the kids fighting is a distraction or delay to my laundry folding quest, and therefore an annoyance and a setback to my goals; I can look at it as an opportunity for connection and learning. I won't have to use scolding or physical separation of them from eachother or from me so that I can get back to that all important task of not feeling like a failure because I don't have to use chores as a measurement of my value as a mother.

So yes, my house may never be spotlessly clean but it is a chaotic harmony. Just clean enough to live comfortably, just dirty enough to give me time to love on my children.

Wednesday Pasta Party!

Continuing the themes for dinner time, we are incorporating a Pasta Party night. Wednesday seems a good a night as any to party! This weeks pasta dish was Shrimp Parmesan with linguine noodles. The kids always love pasta and it has all my favorite things; quick, easy and cheap! Of course you can modify this night to be as quick as Spaghetti, fun as everyone making meatballs or have the warm comfort food feeling of Lasagna. The versatility of this night keeps me sane from not having to endure yet another boring night of Macaroni with cheese and keeps the kids happy too! Just think of all the different noodle and sauce combinations! Add some veggies and meat and voila! And I really love to bust out the food processor and obliterate some veggies to hide in the sauce making it even more healthy. The kiddos really get a kick out of the different pasta shapes too. Worms, butterflies, pipes! We know these better as spaghetti, bowtie or elbow. Now if only I can convince hubby of my needs for more KitchenAide attachements for my mixer....making my own noodles would be awesome! And that gives me an idea for making raviolis! I can just picture it; the kids covered in flour and smiles, the serious looks of concentration while they try to make their little fingers work, the satisfaction of eating something they've made themselves. Sounds like a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Raviolis freeze great and then just toss them frozen into boiling water. YUM.

Here is this Pasta Party recipe! We ate it with a yummy Cesaer salad!

---Shrimp Parmesan
Uncooked thawed Shrimp
Linguine Noodles
Veggies (we used shredded fresh baby spinach, halved grape tomatoes,
diced green peppers, thinly sliced onion, fresh mushrooms)
garlic
olive oil
butter
parmesan cheese (from a block)
italian seasoning
salt & pepper


Start water for noodles and cut up veggies. Cook garlic and onion in olive oil on low. When translucient add mushrooms and green pepper. When mushrooms brown, pour veggies in bowl over spinach and tomatoes (this warms the tomatoes and wilts the spinach). Put a dab of butter in pan, add shrimp and cook until they curl and pink, careful not to overcook and make them rubbery. Add seasoning. Add veggies and cooked noodles, stir in parmesan and serve!

The Land of Chachkis

As a child, I lived in wonder at the shear volumn of my mothers knick-knacks. They abode in every corner, on every flat surface and even adorned the floor. Boxes of seasonal things were put away making a lovely tradition of setting up well remembered porcelain salt and pepper shaker mushrooms, Santa Clause Bells, gnomes, mice, you name it. When I became an adult and started making my own home, trinkets were, to me, like badges of my grownupedness. My lack of them seemed like a lack in my home being where a family lives verses a bachlorette pad, a telltale showing of how much of child I must still be. A failed attempt at creating traditions for my family.

"Do not have anything in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful"
--William Morris

Until I realized that I want to create meaningful traditions in my home. I do not want mindless clutter and endlessly dusty twaddle causing the dreadful cleaning dirge to rise up among the natives. I want only things that I absolutely LOVE, items that I cherish and gladly clean while holding their memory or blissful enchantment in my thoughts. I want to be able to tell each child why this one, this one right here, why it is so special.

So thank you for the gifts, we appreciate the thought! We will admire it for a time and then send it along its journey to find its true space with another family.

As we continue to simplify and add peaceful moments to our surroundings, I think many things will be getting the oneway ticket to GoodWill including toys, various brickabrack whose sole purpose lies in causing parental blood pressure to rise during times of intense childhood fun and any clothing that has been permanently plastered to the bottom of drawers; out of use.

Purge on my friends...purge on.

Monday Mexican Fiesta Night!

Molcajete - Authentic Mexican Mortar and Pestle
by CHEFS

In an effort to extend the idea of Friday Pizza and Movie Night, we have adapted a couple of new ideas we hope to incorporate into our week. The first is Monday Mexican Fiesta Night! This concept helps to alleviate a few different areas of life that we are having issues balancing. By having a few nights a week that are themed we hope to start a tradition that our kids can really look forward too. In the future, I even hope to have a lovely chili pepper tablecloth and brightly colored bowls to hold the buffet style meal items. Mexican style food is a big hit with our 4 kids as well as one of our favorite meals and they love the MYO aspect of choosing which sides they will add to their taco, burritos, enchiladas or salad. I love the idea that it can be as simple and quick as throwing together some tacos or as challenging as experiementing with new flavor profiles and recipes.

The idea here is to also be making a restaurant-type atmosphere. All the fun of going out to eat, AT HOME. And of course when you eat at home, you save money! Even if you buy the most expensive meat and organic items, it will be cheaper than eating the dollar menu, it will be more than one meal and it will be cheaper in the long run on your health care bills. Don't believe me? I've heard constantly that getting a McBurger is so much cheaper to feed your family. Well take a pound of organic grass-fed beef at $5 per pound. How many ounces do you think Taco Bell puts into a soft taco? Well first off lets list what is IN the Seasoned Beef from Taco Bell available on their website

Beef, Water, Seasoning [Isolated Oat Product, Salt, Chili Pepper, Onion Powder, Tomato Powder, Oats (Wheat), Soy Lecithin, Sugar, Spices, Maltodextrin, Soybean Oil (Anti-dusting Agent), Garlic Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali), Silicon Dioxide, Natural Flavors, Yeast, Modified Corn Starch, Natural Smoke Flavor],Salt, Sodium Phosphates. CONTAINS SOYBEAN, WHEAT

Mmmmmm caramel color....sounds delicious! Okay so your beef and spices will be fresher and taste better. Wait...you like the cooked all day flavor and don't have time? Me neither! As a busy mom of 4 under 6 years old, I barely have time to sneeze but I can let you in on my time saving secret, the old fashioned fast food, a pressure cooker! No more worrying about images of exploding cookware and scalding red sauce splatters! You can cook frozen meat with an all day cooked flavor that is tender and juicy in about 30 minutes. I'll go more into pressure cooking concepts in another post.

Back to the original thought: the Beef Soft Taco at Taco Bell is 135 grams, which is less than 5 ounces for the beef, small tortilla, cheese and lettuce. Let's assume the beef makes up the bulk of the ounces, although having eaten many of these I would argue that the tortilla might make up at least half. For the sake of easy calculating, we'll say 4 of the less than 5 ounces is beef. That would be $1.25 for the grass-fed organic meat per taco. And I'm not even going to bother calculating the miniscule cost of iceburg lettuce, a tortilla and cheese. Of course we both know that Taco Bell has never put a 1/4 pound of beef in a taco, so I'm positive you are spending less than $1.50 to make a much healthier option at home. And the cost savings of the trip to your local fast food joint if you don't use organic grass-fed beef (and let's face it, most of the time we don't!) would be miniscule. But the point is really, that fast food isn't THAT much cheaper, it's just more convenient! But when I consider needing to either load 4 kids into carseats and drive the 5 minutes there, wait in line, hope that they get the order correct, listen to my newborn babe cry in the backseat, decide to not order the dollar menu items....is it really harder to toss some meat in a pan and shred some veggies? Sure it takes a bit of planning to have the items on hand, but we almost always have some meat, cheese, beans, lettuce and tomatoes. What more do you really need? I would spend another dollar per family member for healthier food. And when I spend $10 for some super yummy carnitas, plus incorporating a family tradition of eating at home with eachother vs. the old tradition of yelling at dad what they want to order at drive-thru and spending over $20....it all seems to logical and self-explainatory. So why then is it so hard to pass up the grease traps? I think I'll consider this further in another post.

So now that I've gone through our reasons why....here is the first Monday Mexican Fiesta Night recipe! We forgot to take a picture....it was eaten too quickly!

----Pork Carnitas----

Pork Loin ($6 on sale at Target --traditionally I believe they use Pork Shoulder)
Cumin, salt, pepper,
1/2 Onion
2 cloves of Garlic
Can Stewed Tomatoes
Can Green Chilis
2 cups Water or Stock

Toss in Pressure Cooker on high setting for 30 minutes and letting pressure release slowly. Take out pork and shred, drain liquid through sieve and put the chunks of veggies with pork on lightly oiled sheet pan covered in foil for easy cleanup. Put pan in oven under broiler for 15 mins, stopping once to drip leftover liquid over meat to keep from drying out. When meat has crispy tips, it is done!

In bowls, have cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo (premade by store, make your own or just tomatoes), sour cream, black olives, guacamole...whatever you desire! Warm tortillas and go to town on your fiesta party!

First!

This is our attempt at holding ourselves and eachother accountible. Over the last almost decade of being married, we have made goals, dreams, plans, lists, lists of our lists....and we've lost them. They've been forgotten, thrown away, drawn on by one of our 4 children. Circumstances change, life happens and here we are still gazing towards our future full of opportunities. We will keep making promises and fulfilling urges to improve our life and the life of our children and here is where we will document this and hopefully help to inact a real change in our pattern of behavior.

Posts will encompass a wide variety of topics from finances to food, childrearing to chachkis. They are all integral parts of an intricate web, woven together with love, one strand having enough weight to effect the framework of the whole.

So here's to keeping focus on what's really important! Creating our home with love and harmony, balancing the wants and needs of a family of 6 and learning life lessons along the way!