26 April 2011

Ari's 2nd Easter + the real beginning of Spring

Easter turned out to be a beautiful day, felt like it was close to 70 degrees and the sun shone bright until around 2pm when clouds took over. We went to my parents first, Ari received a wonderful goodie-filled basket and we all hung out on the back deck and enjoyed each other. Afterward, we went to visit my great-grandmother, Ari's first time being there. ♥ Our last stop of the day was C's fathers house, which was definitely high-energy. Munchkin had so much fun doing the Easter Egg hunt, she grabbed the basket from C and took off with the big kids! We painted eggs, and ate yummy food. Drew with chalk, and Ari had a blast jumping on her pepere's couch for a solid half hour with her little friend.





















Yesterday, it was another amazing day and we walked to the park to let Ari play for a while. The grass had erupted with purple and white flowers, it was so pretty!









I have photos from today but I'm going to put them in a new post, sorry so photo heavy! Xo

24 April 2011

Links you'll Like - Earth & Rainy days

Friday was Earth day, but it was not looking very promising - So I vowed to get outdoors today. Apparently I don't watch the weather, because it was crazy raining all day! So that led to indoor activities, such as drawing and painting the bathroom. But alas, Earth day shouldn't be one day a year - it should be every day! Here are some links you will like, Earth day edition ;)

In depth list of tips and interesting tidbits

Earth friendly tips Dr Seuss style

40 tips to go green @ home

descriptive article discussing cost

10 green tips for kids - it's never too early to start teaching the wee ones

How eating locally grown food helps the environment

Curious as to whether Organic is worth the extra cost?




(Juniper and Jaxon are doing wonderful, already used to everything, and so lovable!)






Friday we received Ari's easter box from mem mem! She loved all her clothes, tore through it but stopped to look at each thing, and put her beaded necklace on right away! Thanks mem, we love you xo


Her new favorite thing is walking on her tip toes



"Niiiiiiice baby" - Ari's phrase of the hour when playing with her doll. She was making me laugh so much, the way she was so attentive to it but at the same time abusing baby LOL. For instance, she would throw baby off of the bus, but right after go pick it up and lay it back down on the steering wheel. hahah


Ari loves to dance, in these photos she has her egg shaped maracas and was dancing in circles. Right after that she ran to her play yard and hung out on the side of it for a good ten minutes. Every day it becomes more apparent that I am raising a monkey


This morning was interesting.. Ari has a whole bunch of new socks, and usually we let her choose what she wants to wear (within reason.. temperature wise lol). It's important for me to let her develop her own sense of style, and she already has a good one ;)

Lots of art today




We also decided to paint today (C did while I kept the little munchkin entertained)
The room was two toned, the top being white and the bottom and ugly spraypaint looking green.



It looks so good! Definitely a huge change from when we moved in.

We also had a shelf on the bathroom wall that I've been dying to paint, and with befriending the neighbors and being allowed access to their paint hord, I finally did that :)


Tomorrow is easter day. It has no significance to us other than being a hallmark holiday, an excuse to celebrate, to spend time with family and eat and enjoy the beginning of spring. I actually did catch the news tonight, and it's supposed to be 65 degrees. ;) A is going to have a blast, and I'm excited to see how it all goes.

Hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow, xo ♥

23 April 2011

vegan watermelon banana smoothie

Last night our friend J came over to cut C's hair, and I ended up making smoothies for all of this. Super simple and delicious - all you need it some watermelon and a banana!
It's kind of important to make sure your banana is frozen beforehand, because that's what is going to give the smooth texture and coldness. It's also vegan, because no milk was used in it





Scoop out decent amount of watermelon and put in blender


Peel two bananas (1 per serving), a knife is handy because they're frozen


Throw in a blender, and enjoy!

21 April 2011

Serbian beef...

So last night, C wanted a non-vegetarian meal and chose ground beef for dinner. We wanted something different, so I searched for something that sounded good and we might all like. I eventually found something: Serbian beef, veggie, + potato bake. I never follow recipes exactly, but I'm sure its just as delicious if you do

ground beef
onion, carrot, green pepper, celery, potatoes
paprika, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, cloves
water, red wine, half and half
beef bouillon cube


First, take out the veggies you'll be using (1 onion, 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots, etc.) and cut them up *shred carrots with a peeler. *We also added a clove of garlic + scallions


Put your lb of thawed beef in a large saute pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and brown. When it's finished, put it aside in a different bowl, along with a little bit of the remaining liquids. We dumped most of the rest, except for just enough to saute our veggies in.

Saute the veggies until they are nice and tender, then add beef to the pan once again.

By this point you will be ready to add your spices *the recipe calls for paprika, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, and cloves, along with the bouillon cube. We substituted curry powder for paprika which made it much spicier.




Everything should be smelling amazing by now, and will be ready to go in the baking dish.

Line the bottom of the baking dish with thinly sliced potatoes, then add the meat + veggies on top. cover the top of the dish with more sliced potatoes (if i could do-over, i definitely would add more potatoes to the dish)



We didn't add a cover, and let it cook @ 400 degrees for 30 minutes in the oven before we enjoyed it. The top layer of potatoes became crispy but tender, a delicious combo. The dish was spicy, but it tasted like food you would order from Kabob and Curry, so naturally we were in love! Even A gobbled it all up!



This may seem like a heavy caloric meal, but you can burn calories from being on the computer, so give those fingers a workout and give me a vote here, please? xo

20 April 2011

Butternut Squash Soup!

So we have a lot of food from the farmers market, and we needed to find a use for the rest of our butternut squash. We decided to make some butternut squash soup last night, and I'm glad we did! It has a nice, subtle taste and a nice texture.

Things you'll need:
Butternut Squash
One Onion
Olive Oil
Butter
3 Cloves of Garlic
Cinnamon
Ginger
Cloves
Broth (Chicken or Veg.)



First, cut about 1.5 lbs of butternut squash into chunks


Dice a whole onion (pic taken before dicing)


put the onions and squash in a large saute pan along with 2 tablespoons olive oil, medium high heat


saute until golden brown and soft, then add butter (we use earths balance), 3 cloves of garlic and a dash of sugar


stir well, then add a tablespoon of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of cloves, and 2/3 tsp ginger


Saute on low and mix the spices well


Add 1.5 cups of broth (we used organic chicken broth, but vegetable etc works too!)


Let simmer for about 10 minutes, then pour in a blender


puree for a minute, then pour back into saute pan to stay warm. salt and pepper to taste- enjoy!


This dish is super customizable, so experiment and make it your own! Aside from the regular recipe above, we added celery bits, curry powder, apple slices, and pastina. We all enjoyed it, but I think A had had enough....................




Try the recipe, but before you do that, can you please give me a vote at topmommyblogs? Xo