Guilty-Momma-Conscience

I wrote “the kids don’t seem hungry…think they would notice if I don’t make dinner tonight?” as my status update on Facebook yesterday.

Seven of my friends “liked” this, and I wondered if I could blame them for any complaints I did receive from my children.

One of my friends wrote “They wouldn’t notice until bedtime. Then they would be suddenly starving. “, which really is about the truest thing I know about kids and eating.

They want to eat at the most inconvenient times, like at least three times a day. And usually when I have another agenda for that time frame, like a nap. For me.

I did feed them, by the way.

Eggs in a basket and leftover roasted vegetables.

And they ate.

Ok, they ate a FEW bites.

Internally I screamed, “I KNEW IT! I KNEW YOU WEREN’T HUNGRY. WHY DID I TAKE THAT SILLY MOTHER OATH TO ALWAYS TRY TO CRAM FOOD INTO YOU LITTLE PEOPLE?”

Externally I said, “Eat your vegetables.” (Ok, truthfully, I had to say this several times.)

Next time, I am SO not bowing to my guilty-momma-conscience.

She is WAY too bossy and I hate the space she takes up in my head.

Next time we are SO having ice cream and chocolate.

Now that’s a dinner we can all agree on.

Christmas Baking

I just wanted to get and post a few of the yummy, fun Christmas treats I’ve made in the last couple weeks…

I found the inspiration for these at http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/11/vanilla-snowman-cupcakes-with-vanilla.html#more and made them for a little party at our house.

Carter was asked to bring treats for his class Christmas party so I had some fun with these North Pole cupcakes that I had seen at http://jennycookies.com/2010/12/ally-hudsons-gingerbread-party/.

Here’s how mine turned out…

I also made these Sweet Swirl Marshmallows and called them “Snow Cubes”.

On top of all these, I also made peanut butter balls, turtle pretzels candies, white chocolate peppermint pretzels, ginger molasses cookies, sugar cookies, hot chocolate marshmallow stir sticks, Giardelli truffles, candy bar squares, and a couple more treats.

I love Christmas baking, I really do.

But after it all has been given away and just a few (ahem) been eaten by yours truly, I have just one question….

When does the diet start???

Breakfast for Dinner

We have been running around since school got out today…Rona, the chiropractor, Dollarama, the library, and then to swimming lessons. When we got home the kids were starving and I whipped them up some scrambled eggs and pancakes, which is a bit of a once-a-week tradition around here. I just didn’t feel like pancakes though. I wanted something more substantial. I cooked up some potatoes with peppers and southwest seasoning, added some of the scrambled eggs and a couple of different cheeses, and, voila, a “breakfast for dinner” just for me.
It looked so pretty on the plate that I just had to get a picture to show you.

Beyond Easy Slow Cooker Apple Pie Oatmeal

Beyond Easy Slow Cooker Apple Pie Oatmeal.

This is absolutely AMAZING. I kid you not.

It is in the slow cooker right now.

And we will be eating it for breakfast.

AGAIN. For the second time in less than a week, not including the first time’s leftovers.

I may be too easily impressed, but anything that helps with the rush-rush of the school mornings, is SPECTACULAR with me.

Soup’s accompaniment

What’s a good soup without some sort of yummy bread to go along, and perhaps to dip in the soup?

Ok, yes, I can hear you saying, “A good soup without some sort of yummy bread is still a good soup.”

But a good soup WITH a yummy bread accompaniment is even better.

Tonight we are trying these cornbread muffins. yum.

Vegetable Stock…aka…Compost soup base

It’s soup season, which I love.
So today I thought I would share a homemade vegetable stock “recipe” that my sister in law Sandi taught me how to make last winter. It’s the perfect base for all your fall and winter soups and stews, and doesn’t have any artificial (think Buillion cubes) flavorings.

What’s almost even better is that it doesn’t cost anything to make, as it’s a way to get some more mileage out of the veggies you have already purchased and used in other recipes.

All you do is collect all your vegetable scraps in a freezer bag and store in the freezer. What I do is put all my carrot peelings and ends, celery scraps, onion scraps and garlic scraps from my garlic press, along with any fresh herb pieces in this bag. You could add other kinds of veggies as well for varied flavors.

When the bag is full, defrost it and then put it in a big soup/stock pot.
Add water and some additional dried or fresh spices.

Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for 1-2 hours.
Strain and Voila!…homemade vegetable stock.

I made this yesterday as I had two bags of frozen veggie scraps in the freezer just begging to be made into something more useful.

I froze some in bottles for future soups and used some for a Potato and Corn Chowder that is cooking in my Crockpot right now.

MMMMMMMM….

(As a side note, in the third picture, can you see what Mykah was doing while I was stock-making? Yes, there was Play-doh EVERYWHERE.)