Sharing Recipes

As promised, I'm sharing a few recipes I've come across and enjoyed in our quest to eat healthier.
A month or two ago we found out that Jeff is lactose intolerant, so we've gone dairy free.  And we're still trying to cut down on our meat intake.
I had a few meals I normally make that fit this criteria, but then I felt stuck.  I've decided to have soup one or two nights a week, because there are several soups we like that I can cycle through, but I was still having trouble filling the other days, so I went to the library to flip through cook books.
I started with several titles with the word "healthy" in them, but I was disappointed with their selection of recipes.  So many didn't fit my criteria!  But then I picked out a few Vegan cookbooks, and I found several promising recipes.  While we're not planning to ever be full-blown Vegans, it's a great place to look for dairy free and meat free meals.
Jeff and I had this one for breakfast this morning, and it was really good!

Peanut Butter Granola Wrap
2 Tbsp peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 whole-wheat flour tortilla
2 Tbsp granola
1/2 banana, sliced thin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp raisins or craisins
1 tsp honey (optional)
Spread peanut butter down the center of the tortilla and layer granola and bananas on top [I did two layers].  Sprinkle with cinnamon and raisins, and drizzle with honey if desired.  Warm in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to slightly melt the peanut butter.
*I didn't sit and measure out the amounts, but I included them to give you a general idea.  And the original recipe called for agave nectar instead of honey, since it's a vegan cookbook.  I'm really glad I found this, because I'm always looking for healthy breakfast ideas.

We had this one for dinner last night, and I was surprised how much I liked it.  Jeff was surprised to discover that he likes the taste of avocado - this was the first time he's tried some.  I altered it a bit to fit my taste buds, though.  Below I've typed up the original recipe, and then I make note of what I did differently at the bottom.  It's funny - I've always avoided Mexican type dishes in the past, but I'm trying to branch out and try more things.  I will NEVER be open to hot sauce or jalapeño peppers, though.

Messy Taco Salad
2 heads iceberg lettuce, chopped
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup corn
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and sliced, or 2 Tbsp canned green chiles (optional)
1 can refried black beans
2 Tbsp taco sauce or 1 tsp hot sauce
1/4 cup salsa
1/4 cup mayonnaise
10-12 tortilla chips, crumbled
1 avocado, diced (optional)
Combine the lettuce, olives, corn, and jalapeño peppers in a large bowl.  Warm the beans slightly over the stove or in the microwave, just until softened.  Combine beans with taco sauce, salsa, and mayonnaise, breaking up the beans and mixing to form a thick sauce. Combine bean mixture with lettuce, stirring to combine as much as possible.  Add tortilla chips and avocado, and stir gently to combine. Add a dash or two of extra hot sauce, to taste.
*I used spinach and kale instead of iceberg lettuce, I used a can of corn, and I cut out the olives, jalapeños, and taco sauce.  I found a nice black bean and corn salsa at Walmart that wasn't too spicy.  I didn't measure out the salsa and mayo - I just put in an equal amount of the two.  I also didn't mix everything all together - I like everyone to have the option to put together their own salad in the ratios they prefer, so I laid out the tortilla chips, avocado, greens, and then the rest mixed together in four separate bowls.

The book had a great tip for making your own tortilla chips, something I had never thought about doing before.

Baked Tortilla Chips
Slice whole-wheat tortillas into strips or triangles, and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil for a crispier chip, and season with a bit of salt and garlic powder if you want, or just bake them plain.  Bake at 300 degrees for about 5-6 minutes on each side.
*I fit two tortillas on a baking sheet, and I sprayed it with non-stick spray first.  I did them plain for 5 minutes on each side, and they turned out great!  I found it helpful to use a toothpick and spatula when flipping them (bracing them with the spatula and flipping with the toothpick). I think this would be a good way to use up slightly stale tortillas, too.

Lastly, I wanted to share a yummy and easy fruit leather that I made with my dehydrator.  All you do is mix unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon (at a ratio of one cup applesauce:1/4 tsp cinnamon, or to taste, but I found this amount to be just right).  I have a small round dehydrator, and I filled one tray with two cups of cinnamon applesauce.  The house smelled SO good while it was drying, and the texture and taste of the finished product was just right!  I will definitely make it again in the future.

So there you go.  There are a few recipes and tips I've enjoyed recently.  I hope you enjoy them as well!

Two Elmos

One of Cosette's favorite toys for the past year has been a stuffed Elmo.  She sleeps with it, carries it around the house, feeds it food at the dinner table, brings it with us on shopping trips, etc.

Well, this past week she was given a second Elmo.  I didn't really want to deal with two and thought I could make the new one disappear without her caring/noticing, but no such luck.  Cosette LOVES having two Elmos.  She calls the new one "Big Elmo" and her old one "Little Elmo."  In the pictures below, Big Elmo is on the left and Little Elmo is on the right.  They're practically the same size, but Big Elmo is a little chubbier and a smidge taller.

Both Elmos originally had voice boxes in them, but I quickly removed them.  I was determined NOT to have a talking Elmo in my house.  But I kept the voice boxes and occasionally let her play with them.

As you can see in the pictures below, Cosette also enjoys playing with other stuffed animals and her boppy pillow.  She often likes to have 4-6 stuffed animals with her and enlists me in helping her carry them from room to room.  One day when she was taking a bath she had me line up Big Elmo, Little Elmo, Baby, Tiger, Big Bear, DeeDee, and Little Puppy along the cabinet to watch her take her bath (at first she wanted them in the bath with her, but I said no).

It was kind of fun playing around with some of the photo effects - I hope you don't mind.
A few days ago Cosette insisted that her Elmos needed socks and shoes before leaving the house.  So Big Elmo got to wear a pair of socks, and Little Elmo wore a pair of her baby shoes.  She is so funny!

Happy Hat

Cosette's winter hat used to belong to Jeff (which I love, because she'll never grow out of it).  I think she is so cute in it!  She likes to call it her "happy hat," and some days she'll wear it around the house.

Today she decided to wear it at the table, and she insisted that I wear my hat as well.  Here are a few pictures of our hat party at the table.

(FYI: Even though it says that Jeff posted this, Christine did.)

Christmas 2012

We had a very nice Christmas this year, in spite of the snow.  At first we planned on going down to my parents' house in Springville on Christmas Eve, but snow caused us to drive down on Christmas instead.

I thought that Cosette would be more excited about opening gifts this year, but Jeff and I had to open most of them for her.  In the days that followed I could see how much she liked her gifts, though.  She loves her Elmo pajamas and wants to wear them every night (and sometimes during the day, too).  We gave her a grandma book that you can personalize with photographs (which caused me to go to Costco on Christmas Eve, which is totally lame).  She has pictures of five different grandmas: Grandma (my mom), Grandma Darla (Jeff's mom, who has passed away), Grandma Rita (Jeff's dad's new wife), GiGi (my dad's mom), and Great-Grandma (my mom's mom).  She can now name each grandma, and she often likes to sleep with the book.  Another gift we gave her was a My Little People Noah's Ark lift-the-flap book.  She carries it around the house, takes it in the car when we run errands, and sleeps with it too.

Cosette with two of her gifts from Mom and Dad:
Elmo pajamas and a grandma book with photos

We acted out the Christmas story at my parents' house.  We usually do it on Christmas Eve, but they waited to do it on Christmas so we could join in.  Cosette and I were shepherds this year.  Cosette was a little confused about what was going on, but she was happiest when playing with a ball and sitting on the video rocker chair.

Entertaining herself with a ball during the Christmas play

One of the things I asked my parents for was a tree skirt.  For the past few years we've been using a green bath towel that only covered half of the space under the tree.  Here are some before and after pictures.

Before: our sad, sad tree skirt made out of a towel

After: our lovely, proper tree skirt

Striving to eat more healthy

For those of you who may be unaware, Jeff has been having stomach pain (and other symptoms) for about a month now.  We're not sure what is wrong, but he's had blood tests, a HIDA scan, a visit to the ER, and has an appointment to see a GI in a few weeks.  We've gone through a lot of ups and downs emotionally and physically, but I'd like to think that there's something positive coming out of this trial.

About a week ago we caught a health show on TV being presented by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  He talked about how unhealthy and unnatural the typical American diet of processed foods is for your body.  He also talked about the importance of micronutrients that we get from fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts.  Citing research and his experience with patients, he described how a diet based on these essential foods helps you to have more energy, gain and maintain a healthy weight, and avoid illness.

Well, Jeff and I were very interested in what he had to say.  Of course, I've heard a lot of this before, but I felt that we were more open to really listening and applying these principles.  While I was listening to his presentation, I was reminded a lot of the Word of Wisdom in the Doctrine and Covenants.  So I went back and reread it, and certain portions really stuck out to me.  For example, it says very clearly that meat should be used sparingly, only in times of cold and famine.  Again, I've heard this before, but I never really tried to apply it.  Our current diet has a lot of meat in it.  Now that I've been doing more research into how unhealthy that is, it makes my stomach churn to think about it.  We're certainly not setting out to become vegetarians, but we're going to be making real effort to cut back on how often we eat meat.

I've also been paying a lot closer attention to the labels on the foods we eat. Golly!  It's been an eye-opener.  Why are we eating all this junk?  I know why I've been doing it - convenience.  It takes work and planning to eat healthier.  But, little by little, we're taking steps to eat more fresh and less processed foods in our diet.

Take tonight's dinner, for example.  I heated up a frozen pizza - not the healthiest, I know.  But in the past, Jeff and I would eat the whole pizza with no side dishes. Tonight we only ate half the pizza, and we had a green salad and a fruit salad.  I counted afterwards and discovered that we had eaten 6 different kinds of vegetables (three kinds of leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, and tomato) and 5 different kinds of fruit (cantaloupe, mandarine oranges, apples, persimmon, and then pineapple on the pizza).

I wanted to take a picture to show you our beautiful variety of carrots as well as the delicious and interesting persimmon fruit.  We didn't know that carrots came in other colors, and we'd never heard of or tried a persimmon before.  These are courtesy of Bountiful Baskets (if you haven't heard of them, I encourage you to look them up - they are a wonderful way to add a variety of fruits and vegetables to your diet!).

Orange, yellow, and purple carrots - who knew?

Yummy persimmon in our fruit salad

In our quest to eat more healthy foods, I plan to:

1. Make a real effort to eat more salads - both as side dishes and as the main course.  Now that I know how good for you they are, they're a lot more appealing to me.  Neither Jeff nor I have been big fans of salad in the past, so this is a big step for us.
2. Buy fruits and vegetables from Bountiful Baskets more often so that we get a wide range of produce in our diet.
3. Invest in a high quality blender.  As I've been reading recipes in Dr. Fuhrman's book, I can see the benefit of being able to make healthy salad dressing, soups, etc. with the use of a good blender.  Our blender's motor gave out a few months ago, and we haven't replaced it yet, so now's a good time.
4. Look for ways to make things that I bake healthier, like replacing oil with applesauce and using only whole wheat flour rather than half white half wheat.  I've been experimenting with healthier substitutions like this for a while now, but I want to go a little further.
5. Strive to follow the Word of Wisdom more closely.  I now want to focus on the do's, not just the don'ts.  We're especially going to try cutting most of the meat out of our diet.
6. Try to replace processed breakfast and snack foods with healthier alternatives.
7. Cook less often with cheese.
8. Eat more beans, nuts and seeds.

I should have made a lot of these changes sooner.  But honestly, I think that it's taken Jeff being sick to make us take a hard look at our diet choices and how they affect our quality of life.  After the month we've been having, we're more willing and ready to make serious changes.  If any of you have any suggestions, tips, or favorite recipes - please share!  I will be trying a lot of new recipes and foods in the coming months, and I will make an effort to share my successes with you.

Fun with Napkins

I came into the kitchen the other day to find this:

 Cosette had discovered the napkins that I conveniently stored down low in the corner cabinet.

 She had lots of fun with them, so I decided to grab my camera and capture the moment.

Here is Cosette's attempt to "clean up."  The intent was good, even if the execution was a bit off.  And it was really cute to watch her do it, because she was counting as she stuffed them back in, "one, two, eight."

 I really didn't mind having the napkins ruined.  I had recently bought a large package of 600 napkins, only to discover that there was a reason they were so cheap - the quality is terrible!  Warning: stay away from Family Napkins - you get what you pay for.  So go ahead, Cosette.  Rip away!

Playdate with the Tanners

When I taught math part-time at Youth Village about a year ago, Tiffany Tanner came and watched Cosette for me.  She brought her cute little boy Nicholas with her, and he and Cosette got along really well.
I was sad when the Tanners moved away, but fortunately it wasn't far - about a 30 minute drive.  So I took Cosette for a playdate recently and wanted to share a photo and video so you could all see how cute they are together.

I love how they looked back at me at the end of the video.  Too cute!