Don't Even Think About It!

This is the threat I have given my body. More specifically, the threat that my throat has been given if it proceeds down the path it intends to take. The weather is too gorgeous to feel sick. Plus, moms should never, never, ever be able to get sick. Who's there to take care of the mom? The wind has definitely knocked out of my sails.

(Not enough to stop me from an hour long Zumba workout today. Yeah, that was nice. Oh, if you click on the link, make sure your sound is on. The music is fantastico. And if that hasn't helped you understand my love of this new gym craze, check out that girl's body. I am under no illusion that my body will ever look like that, but when I am in the class, I feel like I look that hot! Then I go back to enjoying my mom of three almost 30 year old body. Bring it on!)

Comfort Foods

Last week, when Spring went on break, I was driven to make comfort foods. I don't know what it is about cold weather and baking with me. I often turn to Soup and Sandwiches on such days and thought that those in colder climes might be interested in these yummy recipes.

Inspired by Panera Bread's Broccoli Soup


1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup melted butter
2 stalks of celery, diced
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk (or half and half)
2 cups chicken stock or bouillon
1/2 pound fresh broccoli
1 cup carrots, julienned
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar


Directions:

Saute onion and celery in butter. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and slowly add the half-and-half (this is called making a roux). Add the chicken stock whisking all the time. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the broccoli and carrots. Cook over low heat until the veggies are tender for 20-25 minutes. Add salt and pepper. The soup should be thickened by now. Return to pot over low heat and add the grated cheese; stir until well blended. Stir in the nutmeg and serve.

Panera Bread Inspired Panini's

Any bread of choice (we usually make homemade bread)
Any cooked chicken of choice (ie rotisserie, deli slices)
Thin slices of onion and red bell pepper sauteed in herb butter
Cheese of choice

Assemble like you would any panini sandwich and smear on the dip below:

Spinach Artichoke dip

1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
9-10 oz frozen chopped spinach (just on of those frozen rectangle wonders)
6 oz artichoke hearts (NOT marinated) drained and coarsely chopped
1 small garlic clove, pressed
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Mix ingredients together and cook 20-25 minutes in 375 oven.

Another delicious soup:

Wisconsin Cauliflower-Cheddar Soup
* 2 tablespoon(s) (1/4 stick) butter or margarine
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
* 2 cup(s) milk
* 1 can(s) (13 3/4 to 14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
* 1 head(s) (2 1/2 pounds) cauliflower, cut into 1-inch chunks
* 1 teaspoon(s) Dijon mustard
* 1 package(s) (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, about 2 cups
Directions

* 1. In 4-quart saucepan, melt margarine or butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour and salt; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
* 2. Gradually stir in milk, chicken broth, and 1 1/2 cups water; add cauliflower and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes.
* 3. In blender (with center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape), blend cauliflower mixture at low speed in small batches until very smooth.
* 4. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups cheese until melted and smooth. Garnish soup with remaining cheese to serve.


I hope you can enjoy these since it's back in the 80's here and we are searching for the ice cream.

Happened St. Pat's Day

Usually I am all geared up to do some fun green goodness on this random little holiday, but a las, last night was a bit too short for any major creativity to occur. I am not as young as I used to be. Sunday night was a late night talking to my sister-in-law Sulay who is far too funny for short conversations (late here can be translated into 1 am). Then last night, I stayed up late finishing Mia's poster for her science fair and caught a little snooze between the hours of midnight and 1 before Mia was up with aching knees. That poor girl's knees give her such problems when she is growing. Finally with a dose of Tylenol and several massages later, we both fell asleep at 3 am. Talia, both late nights, helped start the day at 5:40am. The end result, Cheerios for breakfast.

Since Fernando is on night float aka home during the day, I would be able to leave Talia at home during Zumba class. I would get to enjoy Zumba without being yanked out at some random time to fetch a little one who was screaming in the gym daycare. My idea to leave Talia home with Fernando was foiled by a 11 month old who wouldn't fall asleep for her nap. This really is rare and was more then frustrating. After all the tricks I had, I finally got her to lay down, but I was late to Zumba. Then Tiago decided he didn't want to stay in the childcare. Sleep deprived and full of entitlement, I marched Tiago into Zumba class with me. I am sure that all the ladies were slightly frightened by the expression on my face which was a mix of frustration, anger, bitterness, and grease. Shortly into the first song, I was into my groove. (Lucky for Tiago). Wait this isn't the point of the post.

On the way home a huge billboard flashed Little Caesar's Customer Appreciation Day with $3.99 large pizzas. With that little neon inspiration, I formulated a quick change of plans. Tiago and I would surprise Mia at school with a fun lunch. I had all of 15 minutes to get everything ready. Lucky for us, the Little Caesar employee opening that store today was in a charitable mood and opened 15 minutes early for me to be on time for lunch. We stopped by a local store and got green grapes and a doughnut sprinkled with the standard St Patty sprinkles. We even were given two green balloons at the store. A geared up with green leis and fun food we got the surprise we were hoping for. Hopefully, this made up for the Valentine's Day fiasco.

I had a run in with hypochondriadic feelings: Tiago with a assumed case of appendicitis and my ragging thrombosis. Fernando took Tiago to fly a kite. We walked up to Mia's school to a disappointing (for her) awardless science fair poster.


Ate Italian meatloaf on the brick wall in front of her school. And made the walk home in brainstorming mode. I couldn't let the holiday go without something special. Luck struck again and I came up with a modified game of hide and seek. Tuesday night has been shifted from tickle toy night into craft night. I decided we would make St Patrick Day hats. Whomever was wearing the big hat would hide while the rest of us would search. The first person to find the Leprechaun got to hide next and wear the big hat. Aside from making it special, I used the hat making as a treat that had to be earned. The kids cleaned up the dirty living room before they could make the hat and then cleaned while the other person hid.

(neither were too happy with the little hat made for the seekers, but Tiago warmed up to it sooner then Talia did.)
4 rounds later, the house is almost completely clean and we are ready for scripture study and bed. Not the most fantastic holiday fun, but not completely forgotten either.

Spring's Break

First, all good things have to end and somethings even disappear. Such is the case with Spring, Spring Break, and even the original draft of this post. (yeah, I often will blog multiple entries and have to use all the restraint I can to not post these extras. So one of these extra posts was all about this past week and I can't find it anywhere. Funny how the internet can make things disappear.)

Mia, who has an endless list of fun ideas, thought that Monday was a perfect day for an impromptu makeup and muffin party. Luckily, we had a few friend's who were available. After making the muffins, the kids headed up stairs to get glamorous. Makeuping was followed by hairdoing. Pretty girls!

Marvelous Muffin Makers

Glamorous Girls

Tiago's reaction to the female manners


Talia getting in on the X chromosome. I think she's trying to eat some makeup here.



Later that day, we decided that it was perfect kite flying weather. With my lack of success in kite flying, I was only willing to purchase one kite as a trial run. If it turned out to be a success, I was willing to get one for each of the kids. As many of you can probably guess, that was a disaster. At the store, I let each kid pick out a kite and we agreed that which ever kite was the cheapest, we would buy that one. Tiago's Thomas the Train kite won and Mia was more than a sore loser, but rightfully so. Luckily, we still had a old kite from our fantastic life in Florida (really, we loved Florida).


Unfortunately, the kite's main horizontal back brace was missing. We had to jimmy rig a strong brace. Mia thought of using some bendy straws and I reinforced those taped together straws with some small twigs from an obliging bush. It made me think of this:



Getting ready to fly kites in the backyard with Talia looking on.



So after all the bragging about the weather. . .Spring had it's own break. The temperatures dropped and rain came tumbling down. Thank heaven for library story times and other indoor events. Mia's tap class kept the girls busy while Tiago and Fernando (who miraculously got off just in time) went to a Fire Engine Special Event at our library.

Mia worked on her science experiment

and we made lots of comfort food. My favorites for the rainy day freeze are inspired by Panera Bread. I'll post those next so this post can end.

Sunday Stations

The LDS church has some awesome resources. Aside from their online site, the church magazines always have something wonderful to read. I have often used the Ensign as a way to keep the fast. Since I take a break from traditional fasting when I am pregnant and nursing, it kind of is hard for me to restart the process every few years after a good 2 year break. So, whenever I am feeling like I can't last the few hours, I bust out the Ensign and promise myself that I can eat after I read the whole thing. By the end, it figure that I can make a few more hours and often find stories I probably would have never read else wise.

The other week we came across a story in the Friend about something called Sunday Stations. It was a divine answer to every mom's question "what do you do with the rest of the Sabbath after church is over?" We try to make some attempt to keep it holy, but staying in our church close and limiting our activities to things that make it feel like it is a different day then the weekdays. I have often taken the easy out and shoved on some church flick. Although it fits the mold, I don't necessarily love using the movie out instead of being involved.

The whole idea behind Sunday Stations is reminiscent of elementary school. My first grade experience was amazing. I missed out on the whole kindergarten experience, but first grade more then made up for it. The day was broken down into various work centers to help keep interest high and boredom to a minimum. The Sunday stations use that same principle. We had to adjust some of the stations to fit our family age groups, but have loved using it.

Our stations consist of several activities. The kids love going to the internet to color online at the church website. Tiago inevitably colors everything red, including the faces and even the Temple. After we color the few online coloring pages, we explore the other options. We have a phone station where the kids can call various family members and talk for a certain amount of time. Another station is the piano where we sing wiggle songs and re-emphasize the music the kids learned in primary that day. We then pick a story from the Friend to read and then use blocks or play dough or coloring utensils to reenact the story. Last week we built Noah's ark out of jumbo legos after singing the Follow the Prophet verse about Noah and reading a story about him. Mia used her animal toys to help fill the ark that Tiago and I built.

All in all, it was a good use of time and made the day fun, but reverent? Ok, I am basing that off of the song:

Reverence is more then just quietly sitting:
It's thinking of Father above.

A feeling I get when i think of His blessings.
I'm reverent for reverence is love.

When I'm reverent, it shows in my words and my deeds.
The pathway to follow is clear.

And when I am reverent I know in my heart.
Heavenly Father and Jesus are near.

(Reverence Is Love, Children's Songbook, pg 31)