Post-Holiday Food, Part 2

So we've covered lunch, now how about breakfast?  I've gotten into a very bad habit of eating a granola bar for breakfast while driving to work.  If it's a good day, I'll make some peanut butter toast to eat at stop lights.  A bad day = eating just a spoonful of peanut butter before running out the door.  It's not that I'm busier than anybody else, I just don't take/make the time for breakfast.

My kids and I love oatmeal, but this is not a very car friendly food.  Even if we have a morning at home, cooking oatmeal the right way takes time, and when I'm the kids are hungry, breakfast better be ready.  I tried a recipe for crock pot oatmeal a couple of years ago with disastrous results.  Determined to eat a real breakfast more often, I began my crock pot recipe search again, and this time I've found a winner.  Slow cooker steel cut oats are super easy, nutritious and delicious.

My recipe (A google search will show you 100's of different recipes, but this is what I have done):

1.  Find a large glass bowl that will fit inside your crock pot.  Fill the bowl with 1 cup steel cut oats, 4 cups water and 1/2 cup milk or cream.  Add a dash of salt and cinnamon to taste.  You can add dried fruit now, or wait until morning.

2. Set the bowl in the crock pot, and fill the crock pot with enough water that it comes at least half way up the sides of the glass bowl (essentially creating a water bath).  Cover, and turn the crock pot onto low.

3.  Get 8 hours of sleep.  Wake up.  Eat oatmeal.  Feel good.

Post-Holiday Food

Last weekend we took a mini vacation to the Sun Valley area.  After two days of eating out, I realized that I had managed to eat almost no vegetables (with the exception of veggie pizza).  On our way out of town, we stopped to check out the new Main Street Market.  I bought some quinoa salad, as well as some raw kale salad from the deli.  The quinoa salad had corn and onions mixed in and was pretty standard, but the raw kale salad was really, really good.  It had a lemon vinaigrette, parmesan cheese, pine nuts and red peppers.  Although it couldn't undo the massive amounts of manchego flatbread I had consumed, it did make me feel healthier.  

Hoping to recreate the salad for work lunches this week, I bought kale at the store today.  I bought one bunch of red kale and one of green, but I chose to use the red for this salad.  I also restocked my quinoa supply, since I couldn't remember how old mine was (does it go bad?).  I buy organic quinoa in the bulk section, making it a pretty low cost food.  My original plan was to cook and cool the quinoa, then add the raw kale, taking inspiration from the two grocery store salads.  However, even after chopping it into very thin strips, the kale was still pretty tough.   I ended up lightly sautéing the kale in some olive oil, sea salt and garlic, then tossing with the cooked quinoa.  I forgot to buy pine nuts, so I added some chopped walnuts.  I had half a bag of organic dried cranberries in my fridge, so those went in too.  Instead of making a dressing, I drizzled the salad with olive oil and the juice of half of a lemon.  The result was really good while warm, and I think it will be equally delicious as a cold salad.  I didn't measure anything but the dry quinoa (one cup), but I think this recipe would be very flexible.  I did a search for quinoa and kale salads and found quite a few actual recipes.  I think these sound good: with avocado (yum!), with apple, and a nice wintery version.  Which do you think sounds best?

A Semi-Homemade Christmas

For Blake:

Growing up, my dad always had a Nerf basketball hoop hanging in the kitchen.  Blake has been into makeshift basketball games lately (Who wouldn't love to chuck a wooden car into a mixing bowl?).   I looked at all of the big, plastic toddler b-ball hoops, but they are, well, big and plastic.  I thought a Nerf hoop would be the perfect thing for a big empty wall in his room.  Except, I think they are kind of ugly, too (yikes, I'm picky!).  

Did you know a piece of scrapbook paper is the exact width of a Nerf hoop (that was pure luck)?

I think it is awfully cute!

Total cost: around $6.00, ball included

I already have the 3M strips on the back, so I might try to sneak into his room tomorrow night and stick it to the wall.

Hadley's gift:

For some reason, Hadley's favorite movie is Ratatouille.  Perhaps it's because it's one of the first and few that she has ever watched.  Blake loves Cars.  Cars toys, books, clothes = everywhere you look in Target.  Ratatouille= Nowhere to be found.  I had to take matters into my own hands. 

If you haven't seen the movie, this video will explain what I'm about to show you.

Kids chef hat $4.00 + shipping from amazon.  Rat $0.99 from Ikea

I used a scrap of elastic (that I had from a tutu project 3 years ago) to sew a loop for the rat.  That way he can be taken out and played with.

I think she'll love it!

A Prescription

What Would You Send?

Did you know that you can send small items in the mail without a box?  Checkout this blog to see what they've been sending. What should I drop in the mail tomorrow?

Skating to School

How great is this?

A Last Minute Gift Idea

If you need a gift as soon as possible, or if you have no patience (me), then check out these customized prints from Earlybird Ink.  She will ship the print to you, or for a couple dollars less, you can print it yourself.  Mine arrived in my inbox a few hours after ordering, and she sent me multiple proofs as I couldn't decide on a color/pattern.  If you use the code GRANDOPENING10, you'll get 10% off.

The first nail hole in the office/guest room wall was a bit painful, but I love how it looks!

Here is a sample from her site, so you can see the details.  I copied the white mat/frame idea ($13.99 at Target)

Bonus holiday cheer:  

  I believe I posted it last year, but if you have kids, don't miss the Portable North Pole customized messages from Santa.  My kids have each watched their videos at least 5 times today.

This Would Improve the Christmas Shopping Experience.

Christmas Spirit

Before I really get started, let me warn you that this post will make some of you angry (how very un-Christmas like of you).  As a preface, before you go and accuse me of being a Scrooge, take a look at what my kids will find in their lunch boxes today:

And likewise, here is what will be in mine:

So, back to the reason for this post.  I hate the Christmas radio station.  With a passion.  I swear some of the songs they play are holiday classics only because we hear them on the same station year after year.  Seriously, I've never heard them anywhere else.  I know, I know...some of you are in shock right now.  What a blasphemous thing to say about the elusive Christmas music, which we only get to enjoy 24 hours a day, from November 1st to January 1st each year.  But come on, somebody out there has to agree with me, right?

So, now that I got that negativity out, here is my solution for you.  Have you heard the Sufjan Stevens Christmas album?  If not, turn on Spotify now.  It's Christmas music, some very traditional, but done in a very relaxing, heavily instrumental, somewhat folksy and very Sufjan way.  Try it, you'll like it.  

Now wish me luck, for when my husband reads this latest rant he may divorce me.  He's been singing Little Drummer Boy from the top of his lungs for days.   Oh well, opposites attract, or so they say.

This and That

- My friend gave us the cutest melted snowman cookies today.  I wanted to get a picture, but the kids gobbled them up before we got home.  Here is a picture (with instructions) that I found online.

via

-  Here is a great re-use for cups with domed lids.  I might have to see if Starbucks will give/sell me a few of these, as painting can get very messy here.

 I found this idea on the blog Storage and Glee.  It is full of fun, creative storage ideas.  I've only made it through the first 5 pages, because sure there is something else I should be doing, but I'm excited to see the rest of her finds. 

-I'm trying to come up with ideas to make a star to top our Christmas tree, but I'm not having much luck. Here is one result of my search. 

Any suggestions?

Blue, Part I

Before:

During:

Paper and glue are finally gone, but the ugliness remains:

Faux wainscoting is up (Lowes) and the walls are primed:

Adventures in color matching:

 Sidenote: We learned that while Lowes can match Benjamin Moore colors, they look different in different brands of paint.  The Olympic VOC-free unfortunately looked awful.  Valspar was a winner.  The color is " Mount Saint Anne ," and I found it by googling "the perfect blue-gray-green paint."  Apparently a lot of people are looking for the same thing, because I found lots of ideas.

Part way there:

And, done.

The "After":

What do you think?