Recipe: Quinoa Pilaf

I like quick meals, and even when I start with a recipe, I tend to modify it as I go. So Quinoa Pilaf is just my style. I don't remember where I first saw the "recipe", but, I just kind of got an "idea" from it, and then did my own thing.

Quinoa pilaf is never exactly the same, but I thought I'd share how I happened to make it last week, and some additional ideas.  One thing I love about quinoa is that it cooks more quickly than other "healthy" grains (like brown rice), and it's high in protein, which helps you feel full longer. So, I'm not going to give amounts, per se, but here's what you need:

uncooked quinoa (1 or 2 cups)
water or broth for cooking the quinoa
onion, chopped
any veggies that need using (celery, bell pepper, carrots, etc), chopped
canned corn and or frozen peas if you don't have enough other veggies
some type of legume (black beans, chick peas, kidney beans, lentils . . ), rinsed and drained
fresh or dry herbs or spices

Start by getting the quinoa cooking, follow the package directions. Cook in plain water, or, for more flavor, use vegetable broth (or, I suppose, chicken broth, but I'm vegetarian). While the quinoa cookes, start sauteeing the onions and other veggies. Once they are well cooked, add the canned veggies and beans (the above picture has canned corn, black-eyed peas, onions, and I don't remember what else . . .).  by this time, the quinoa is probably done, so stir it in. Add any herbs or spices. Taco seasoning, or italian seasoning or whatever strikes your fancy. Also, if I have fresh herbs, I add them. This one had some cilantro I had in the fridge. I add fresh herbs at the end so they just get "wilted". I also sometimes add scrambled eggs.

And that's it, just serve and eat! I made this for lunch, served Little Bit a small bowl of it (she tends to eat "snacks" all day, so only eats a little at mealtimes) and myself a not, huge serving, and by the time I ate that, here's what was left. Sassy and MiniMe had devoured the whole pan!

So there you have it, a great way to clean out the fridge, that's healthy, quick and easy, and at least MY kids devour it, what more can you ask for? :)

Crew Review: Inspiring the American Dream

Inspiring the American Dream was created to help children learn about the American Dream. They were kind enough to send us a copy of their book, Abraham's Journey: A Celebration of the American Dream by Robert and Kathleen Basmadjian, to review.

The basic story is about a boy named Abraham who is looking for a way to earn money to buy Christmas gifts for his family. Abraham Lincoln magically pops out of Abraham's smart phone and takes him on a journey through American history, meeting famous Americans who represent the American Dream.

Abraham's Journey: A Celebration of the American Dream, is available for $14.99.

I was excited about this review. We love books, we love American History, this sounded like a perfect fit.

So, it came, and the next day for history, I pulled it our as our read aloud.

The book begins by talking about "the American Dream" being important to Abraham's parents. At which point, the girls, interrupted me to ask "What's the American dream?", since the whole point of the book, as I understand it, is to help children learn about the American Dream, I assumed it would be defined in the book, so I told them to wait and find out. My bad, the book never defines the term, except in the glossary in the back of the book.  This is a big oversight, in my opinion,, but as long as you're aware of it, it is easily dealt with. Just make sure to have a discussion with the children, about what "the American Dream" is/means, before reading the book.

After reading the book, I asked Sassy and MiniMe what they thought of it. They found it "weird" that Abraham apparently never recognizes Abraham Lincoln, even after being told that his name is Abraham. Throughout the book, he is referred to as "the wise old man". On the other hand, Abraham DOES recognize Bill Gates and Martin Luther King Jr. MiniMe and Sassy's biggest complaint was that it doesn't tell the stories of the famous peoples' lives. There are short biographies (a paragraph each), in the back, but that's not enough for my detail-loving children, and the story itself doesn't even explain who some of the people are.

This book is designed for children age 7-12, so my girls, at age 9, almost 10, are pretty much smack, dab in the middle of the age range. I think it's a pretty accurate age range. Younger than 7, even with explanations, I don't think would "get it". Even at almost 10, my girls were "tearing apart" the story to some extent . . . by teen years, the story would be too "young" for them."

If you are looking for a book to stand alone in teaching about the American Dream, I don't believe this does that. It doesn't explain things enough, at least for my inquisitive kids. However, if you're looking for a resource to use as a part of a "unit study" on the American Dream, this could be great. To use this book effectively, I would begin by talking to the kids about what the American Dream is, why it's important, what it entails . . .THEN we would read the book together. And once we'd read it, I would have biographies standing by ready to read and learn about the people we "met" in the book. After learning more about all the people mentioned, we would revisit the book and discuss more about how each of these people represent the American Dream.

To see what other crew members thought of this book, and how they used it, click here.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Weekly Wrap-Up: February 23

This week was a distinct improvement over last week.  On Sunday, our lovely friend, Denise was moving. Since Rodney was working and, with Little Bit in tow, I couldn't be much help with the actual moving, my contribution was to watch E & J so that their parents could both help with the move. I'm going to count the day a resounding success, since, when Penny arrived to pick the boys up, J's response was "I thought you were going to be spend a LONG time, moving Miss Denise" (the boys had been at our house for approx 5 hours, but I guess that wasn't a "long time" in J's world). And E begged his mom to let HIM stay, since HE didn't need a nap LOL.  The kids built with Legos and played with the balloon rockets, that Sassy & MiniMe made a few weeks ago. Little Bit of was putting stickers on a box (something she's been doing quite abit, since we unpacked a big stack of stickers, and there are plenty of boxes floating around). J wanted to "help", so I found another box, and another sheet of stickers and he settled in beside her on the steps, that's perhaps the "calmest" moment of the entire day, but isn't it cute :)  The CALM activity only lasted until the big girls suggested that the boxes would make great ROCKETS, and then proceeded to push the little ones around in said boxes for the next however long.

My only organized activity of the day was making cookies. Denise had mentioned that she'd gotten a new cookie jar to match her new kitchen, so I figured making cookies would be a nice gift for Miss Denise AND would keep all the kids calmly occupied for awhile. It worked wonderfully, and I think the kids all had fun with it.

The rest of the week was school, unpacking, renovations, same old, same old . . . :) I couldn't resist snapping this picture of Moccasin when he was sitting in the school room window while we were doing school. Silly cat, was acting like he wanted to get in the OTHER window, but couldn't because that cactus was in his way, so I had Sassy move the cactus to the other windowsill, so THEN he went and sat on that windowsill with the cactus. Whatever . . . 

My mom decided not to come up this week. She was concerned that Grandma would get the stomach bug that we'd all had, and didn't want her to be alone if she was sick. So, Dad came up by himself. Little Bit handled it pretty well, but it did mean I didn't get much unpacking done. It  also meant the girls did some of the cooking this week. MiniMe insisted her "baby" needed to be on her back while she cooked lunch.

Unpacking has renewed the girls' interest in board games. Somehow, when they sat in the cupboard at the old house, nobody ever noticed them, but pulling them out of the boxes and onto a shelf here, caught their attention, so we've been playing more board games. The older girls are enjoying Sorry, and are VERY proud to report that they have both beat Daddy at Stratego a couple times. He told them, before playing, that he was "the master", then taught them the game, and they both beat him, they are quite cocky about it LOL. Little Bit has been enjoying Candy Land (somehow in the packing and unpacking process, we ended up with our "antique" Candy Land (it was my dad's when he was a kid) on the shelf instead of the Dora version we got when Sassy and MiniMe were little. She explains that we have to be careful because it's an antique, so cute.  Her other new favorite is Wildcraft. We've had this game for a few years now, but had never played it much. The big girls noticed it, and wanted to play it because they recognized it as being by the same company as the Herb Fairies stories we've been loving. They are enjoying the game, but Little Bit is LOVING it, we play it at least once, most days. She loves to "get hurt" and check to see if her has the right herbs to fix whatever card she gets.

 

My dad is making good progress on the new shower. It's starting to look like a shower :) It's starting to really look like a shower. He has the walls up, and was able to start putting the plumbing stuff in before he left Friday. He still needs to finish the plumbing, drywall the wall he had to build, do the wiring and put in the switch for the exhaust fan that he put in the wall above the shower, and do all the "finishing work. So still lots to do, but it's starting to look more like a shower :)

He also has cut the boards for the bookshelves we're going to have instead of a banister on the stairs.

This week, I started noticing a "sewer" smell in the pantry. When I asked Dad about it, he said it was probably because the laundry sink that was in there wasn't being used and the water had dried up in the trap (since I didn't need a sink in the pantry, I'd set a bin with all the kids' snow stuff (boots, snowpants, etc) into the sink, to utilize the space until Dad had time to take it out. So I cleared that out, and Dad confirmed that was where the smell was coming from, so that became another project this week. Now I have more storage space in the pantry, and need to decide if I want to leave it as empty space (right now I have the folding chairs in that space) or put shelving there, or what.

Today in Sabbath School, Little Bit and J were being soo cute. Penny got most of the pictures, of them working together as "helpers" to pass things out (to Penny, MiniMe and Sassy, since there weren't any other kids), but I did snap a picture of them during the story time. Sassy was telling the story, and had them help her by putting up felts. It's cute to see them get more used to the programs and continue to interact with each other, so fun.

This afternoon, the girls were painting their nails, and decided they needed to paint Daddy's nails too. Being the awesome Daddy he is, he agreed. Little Bit painted his toenails, and then the big girls set to work on his fingernails. Sassy's birthday gift to MiniMe was a set of nail pens, and when they were painting their nails, she asked if she could give them to MiniMe now, instead of waiting till next month. So they were having fun with being able to draw details on their nails, and Daddy's.  

Isn't he a good Daddy? I love the glee on MiniMe's face while she's painting his nails LOL.

And that was our week.

 

Book Review: Respect Dare by Nina Roesner

In The Respect Dare, Nina Roesner suggests that, just as women want to be shown love by their husbands, men want to be shown respect by their wives. This book is a 40 day challenge to women to learn to show respect to their husbands, no matter what.

I am always looking for ways to build up our marriage, and to show love to my husband, so, since I was finishing up the devotional I'd been using, I thought I'd check this one out.

I'll admit, I didn't exactly use it as "directed" because of needing to get the review written, I chose to double up and read 2 challenges some days to get through the 40 days, in a shorter amount of time.  Still, I feel like I got a good "feel" for the intent of the book, and how it works.

Each day includes a text, some discussion of that, a real-life example of a woman struggling with, or overcoming, that day's issue, and then a challenge, and usually some journaling prompts.

As is going to be the case with anything of this sort, some of the challenges were more relevant to my marriage than others. One thing that did bother me, was that many, I'd even say most, days included a suggestion to ask your husband for feedback. This might be just what some men want/need, but not much annoys my husband more than being asked "touchy feely" questions, EVER, much less daily. Needless to say, since my goal wasn't to annoy him repeatedly all month, I skipped those suggestions :)

All in all, I think, if showing respect to your husband is an area you struggle with (which, in today's society, I think is quite common, and sometimes not even recognized as a "problem"), this is a good jumping off point. I would suggest that each challenge be taken as a "suggestion" and evaluated against what you know of your husband's likes/dislikes (such as me choosing not to ask him incessant questions, hee hee), but with that adaptation, this can be a great study for a woman to do individually, or as a group.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

What's for Breakfast?

The truly observant among my readers, might have noticed something new . . . I added a recipes tab at the top.  Way back, soon after I started this blog, I decided I didn't want to clutter it up with recipes, so I started a simple little separate blog for recipes. And I haven't really put any time into it. It's basically just a place that I keep track of some of my recipes (others are in Pinterest, or on my computer or on scraps of paper in a clip on my fridge), and if someone asks me for a recipe, I can send them a link.

Then, a couple weeks ago, a friend asked about recipes, and I sent her a link to something and she pointed out that I had no pictures, so she couldn't pin it. Hmmmmm . . . obviously I need to add pictures to my recipes. AND if someone's going to actually PIN my recipes, then I want them on my main blog, since those are the stats that matter. . . and hence . . . the recipe tab.  I will slowly be adding recipes, and even more slowly adding pictures (because I have to actually MAKE a recipe, in order to get a picture of it, and I'm not doing a whole ton of extra cooking right now).  When I add recipes from the old blog, I'll be dating them back when I first added them to the old blog, so they won't fill the current month with tons and tons of recipes, but I want to add in some of my newer favorites too, and to introduce the recipe tab, I thought I'd share one of our favorite breakfasts.

APPLES AND ONIONS!

When I first heard someone mention this, I kind of shuddered . . . I am NOT a fan of combining sweet and savory, so this didn't even sound remotely good. And my kids don't even LIKE onions (and hubby doesn't like anything remotely sweet, so he doesn't like apples OR cooked onions). But then the girls heard about the recipe, and wanted to try it. So we did. I have to admit, I haven't kept track of the original recipe, and we don't really measure any more, but here's how WE make Apples and Onions, one of our favorite breakfasts.

Several Apples, cut into 8 wedges, core removed, skin left on

1-2 onions, sliced

Butter

Sucanat (or brown sugar)

cinnamon

Melt a good layer of butter in a large skillet (I LOVE my cast iron skillets). Add sliced onions, and let them start cooking while you cut the apples. Onions should be soft  before adding apples. Arrange apple slices in a layer over onions. Sprinkle with Sucanat and cinnamon. Place a lid over the skillet while apples cook, stirring occasionally.  When apples are soft, it's done, dig in!

I'll be linking this to the Schoolhouse Review Blog Cruise, which will be posted here, next week.

Weekly Wrap-Up - February 18

Ugh, what a week!

The week started out great. On Sunday, we met friends at Reading Public Museum.  There's a Lego exhibit there right now that we thought the kids would enjoy. And they did. Though if our combined schedules had allowed for a week day that would have been less crowded. Still, it worked out well. The area was small enough, and had few enough exits, that I was comfortable letting the older girls go wherever, and since the building with regular Legos (that they would have enjoyed), was crowded enough that they weren't real into it, so they were happy to help watch the "little kids", which meant each of the "little kids" (my Little Bit, and my friend's two boys) could play where THEY wanted to, without having to take turns with siblings :-)  Little Bit's favorite was the big rubber blocks.  She spent most of her time there.

One of the things Little Bit did with the big rubber blocks, several times, was to build a "duck". Here's a picture she asked me to take of her with one of her "duck" creations. 

I didn't get a chance to take many pictures of the big girls, because they were off in other areas, but I did get a picture of MiniMe and Little Bit "jousting". Nothing like having big sister give you PERMISSION to hit you with a big foam stick, right? She was so funny with it. I love the look on her face in the close-up of her with the jousting stick too :) 

After we had enjoyed the Lego display or quite awhile, we headed out to the rest of the museum for the big girls' enjoyment. We had to move pretty quickly, since it was approaching naptime (AND we hadn't had lunch), but the girls seemed to enjoy it. I told them sometime when life settles down abit we'll see if Daddy can either watch Little Bit while I take them back to the museum, or he can take them while I stay home with Little Bit. I did snap a picture of them trying to figure out the origami interactive exhibit. We couldn't stay long enough for them to actually make something, but I liked how intense they both look, and how alike (I know, they're twins, but I hadn't realized they were wearing similar colors (on top, MiniMe was wearing a shirt & skirt, Sassy was wearing a dress) & each had a flower barrette until I looked at the picture LOL)

So, that was Sunday, GREAT day! Then the rest of the week happened, sigh . . . MiniMe came and woke me up around 4am to tell me that Little Bit was throwing up, UGH! So that was Monday.

Tuesday, Little Bit was feeling better. Wednesday my parents came up to continue helping us with the renovations, and during the night Wed night, it was my turn to catch the stomach bug, sigh . . . MiniMe joined me a couple hours later. On a positive note, since my mom was here, I had my first true "sick day" in years :) Since the girls' room is so far from the bathroom, once MiniMe threw up, she decided our bed looked more convenient (and Rodney was away on business), so she and I just pretty much slept all day, and Mom took care of Little Bit, and generally kept things running around here.

That afternoon, as we were starting to feel like we might live, Sassy's turn came. She'd been feeling "off" all day, but finally started throwing up mid-afternoon. The only "good" thing about that was, with the long incubation period (Mon morning to Thurs morning), I was concerned that if one or both of the big girls didn't have it on Thursday, with me, they might catch it FROM me, and be sick on Sunday, when we were committed to babysit for a friend, so she could help a mutual friend move. 

I had to laugh, it was VERY obvious when MiniMe started to feel better, she went from "sleeping" to finding my dad and "bombarding" him with all the questions she'd been storing up ALL day about the various projects he was working on around here :) 

Friday, I still had no energy, and Sassy was still recovering (not really eating much yet), but we were all on the mend . . . 

So that was our week (and to top things off, once my parents got home, they both got sick, though Dad's case was mild) too, ugh!).  NOT the most fun week we've ever had, but such is life.  Thankfully, Rodney didn't catch it from Little Bit, and was gone while the rest of us were sick, so I think he escaped this round.

I'll wrap up, with a cute picture of all 3 girls in their nightgowns ready to go upstairs to bed after their baths Friday night :)

Homeschool Review: Flowering Baby

Flowering Baby is a fun curriculum for children age 0-5. It is designed to be started at any time, based on your child's age.

Since Little Bit is 3, I chose to review the Three to Four year old Curriculum. This curriculum is available for $38 from the Flowering Baby Store, you will also find information on that page about ordering it as a direct download. The Three to Four Curriculum is set up with the monthly curriculum guide, as well as a Themes Guide, that includes 24 short themes. The suggestion is that, at whatever point in the year you start, you begin with that calendar month of the curriculum and cycle through for the full 12 months. Additionally, you can choose 2 themes from the theme guide each month. There are recommendations for which themes to use with which month or you can mix it up according to your child's interests. If you would like to see a sample of a full month of this curriculum, you will find the link at the bottom of this page.

Since we received this in early January, we started at the beginning of the curriculum guide. Since we are also using a different preschool curriculum, I looked over the themes and chose a theme that would correlate with that curriculum as well. 

As soon as I began reading through the curriculum guide, I realized that some tweaking would be necessary for it to work in our family. Mainly, this was adapting for Little Bit's current level. It seemed beyond silly to me, to sit and count to 5 with Little Bit when she can count to 30 on her own, so we skipped that ;) Another necessary, on-the-fly tweaking was the fact that Little Bit tends to either not have any interest in sitting for a story, or wants the same story over and over and over and over and . . . you get the idea. At this age, I feel strongly that the best way to squelch the love for reading is to force it, so I got the recommended books from the library, but let her choose which ones we read, and then we did activities from that book on that day. 

One thing that I found confusing was the fact that, starting in January, the curriculum DOES build on itself . . . later in the curriculum, instead of counting to 5, you count to 10, for example. So I'm abit unclear on how that would work if you were to start in the middle. . . it doesn't make sense to me that you would count to 10 with the child when you started in June, but then the following January, drop back to just counting to 5. My recommendation would be, if you're starting anytime other than January, to look over the whole curriculum, use season-specific activities as recommended, but the basic counting and alphabet stuff, if you're using it (I also feel pretty strongly in not pushing academics at this age, so another option would be to skip these unless your child shows an interest).

There are some fun activities in this curriculum. All 3 girls were intrigued when I said we were going to make snowmen one day (when there wasn't any snow outside), and all three had a blast making styrofoam ball snowmen.

Little Bit's snowman is in the middle, it's abit . . . abstract, but she had great fun making it and could explain what each thing was. 

I think, if I'd followed the suggestions, verbatim, Little Bit would have found it frustrating and (her current favorite word) "boring". However, by knowing my child and picking and choosing the activities that made sense for her development, personality, and interests, we were able to enjoy some new books and ideas that we gleaned from the curriculum. I think, at this age, in most cases, you CAN just follow their interests, or not start anything formal yet. But, if you have a young child who is begging to "do school", and you don't have time, or inclination to have to hunt down books and activities on your own, this would be a good option to give you lots of age-appropriate ideas for books and activities.

Don't forget to check out what my fellow crew mates thought about this product, including the other ages, here.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.