Happy Halloween!

Trent was an adorable Peter Pan for Halloween this year. I followed a tutorial that I found online and made his outfit from scratch. He looked pretty cute. My creative side is definitely starting to show more as a stay at home mom than it ever did as a financial analyst. I love how much fun I am having creating things! Yesterday, we went and trick or treated at Grandma and Grandpa K and Great-Grandma J. Tonight, we went to the annual Tailgate Party at church. It was a lot of fun! Trent played on some of the inflatables and tried his first lollipop. He's a fan! We had a great time hanging out with friends, eating good food, and soaking up the fun, family atmosphere.

Mr. Peter Pan

Oh, those blue eyes!

Family of 3.5 ;)

TJ and Uncle Dave

Tailgate Party at Church

Midweek Menu

I did not plan a menu last week and I hated when it would hit 4pm and I'd be scrambling to figure something out. I was bound and determined not to let that happen again this week.

Yesterday, we picked up our veggie box. In it, we received green tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers, and oranges. We doubled up on oranges and cucumbers instead of getting carrots and lettuce. Once I know what's in the box, it's time to figure out how to incorporate it into a menu. The oranges are delicious! I'm not sure what variety they are but all three of us have been eating them with breakfast and as a snack. They don't peel easily so Trent is learning how to eat the flesh off the orange smiles.

Monday - Lentils and Veggies

(basically a clean out the fridge day of the veggies we have left from the previous week's vegbox. I loosely followed the recipe, but instead of spinach, I used butternut squash and sweet potatoes.)

Tuesday - Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff with sliced cucumbers on the side

Wednesday - Pork Chops with Collard Greens

(Thank goodness for southern friends because I had no idea what to do with collard greens!)

Thursday - Chickpea and Parmesan Pasta

(I have been wanting to try this recipe for weeks and it keeps getting put off - tomorrow's the day!)

Friday - Homemade Pizza

So that leaves me with green tomatoes... I like fried green tomatoes, but we have more tomatoes than I want to fry. A friend suggested green tomato salsa, so I may have to try that and see how it turns out!

Auburn 8-0 After Beating LSU

Are you ready for some football?

Mollie attempting to play

It's not a tailgate without FOOD

Tri Delta's New Hall

Family Pic on Samford Lawn

Today we took Trent to Auburn for his first tailgating experience. It was so much fun to walk around the campus, spend time with friends and take in the Auburn game day atmosphere. Both Jesse and I love the time we spent at Auburn and are looking forward to sharing our Auburn pride with our children. It was such a great day and Auburn pulled off a 24-17 win over LSU! War Eagle! Below is a clip of one of my favorite plays of the game. Auburn has a great quarterback this year named Cam Newton. He's an excellent athlete and a lot of fun to watch.

TJ Reprimands the Nurse

Trent had to go to the pediatrician for two shots today. He was such a brave boy. He didn't cry at all. However, after the shots were given, he stood up on the table, looked straight at the nurse and started loudly "talking" to her a mile a minute. It was like he was telling her that the shots were so uncalled for and she did not have to do that again. Both the nurse and I were laughing at how adamantly he was expressing his point. If only we understood baby talk better! :)

Pray Expecting Results

How often do we pray half heartedly, not fully expecting God to answer? Are we praying because we feel we should or in hopes that He hears us?

I've been thinking about two verses this week that really hit home with me at a bible study I'm in at church.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

Do we want God to do more than we ask or exactly what we ask and no more? God knows the ultimate plan for generations to come and yet he listens to (and answers) our prayers. We often only see a tiny little window and don't realize the much bigger picture. What a great reminder to pray with intention and expectation!

Pumpkin Patch Tradition

Every fall, we make a trip to a pumpkin patch outside of town. It is always one of my favorite family day trips of the year. They have a corn maze, a hay ride, a petting zoo, horse rides, kiddie tractors, and of course picking out a pumpkin! It's bunches of fun for the kids! Last year Trent was only about 7 months old when we went. He did the corn maze and picked out a pumpkin, but it wasn't really a 'hands on' experience. This year, Trent was interested in everything. Grandma and Grandpa Reiersen came down for the weekend and joined us for the trip. It was so much fun to have them along. Grandpa even escorted Trent on his very first horseback ride. Trent loved it! He has no fear of animals and loves all kinds of animals. He spent forever in the bird barn (there were coups full of chickens, ducks and geese). He even pet a baby chicken.

Pumpkin Pickin'

Hayride!

TJ's first horseback ride

Petting a chicken

Riding a John Deere for Uncle Eric

Thought of the Day

Today seems to be a particularly messy day. At various points throughout the day, I've had sidewalk chalk, grass, rocks, lunch, cleaning products, and bodily fluids (mostly toddler snot, thanks to the change in seasons) on me. In spite of all this messiness, I still believe I have the best job in the world!

Favorite Recipe Sources

Tasty Kitchen – huge compilation of recipes and many of them are rated by other readers. I love reading what people thought of a recipe and if/how they altered the recipe.

Hillbilly Housewife – great suggestions on how to make every day items from scratch. I use her recipes for making dry onion soup mix, granola, homemade yogurt, etc.

Barefoot Contessa – she knows how to make delicious food from simple ingredients. Love her recipes! I have a bunch of her cookbooks, but many of her recipes can be found on Food Network.

Taste of Home – tons of tried and true recipes. I have both the regular cookbook and the baking cookbook. Great resources!

Hobby Farm Home – a magazine that comes every other month that often has great recipes and interesting articles. My favorite banana bread recipe comes from here, but I can't find the recipe online.

Friends – great resources, especially because a lot of them are at the same life stage as me. They know what recipes are doable with young kids and a budget.

A year of slow cooking - I do a lot of crockpot cooking. You can make so many things in the crockpot from yogurt to dessert to pot roast and the food cooks itself.

Wholesome Baby Food - TJ eats what we eat now, but I used this site a lot when we were first introducing him to foods. We made all his baby food instead of buying jars of the processed stuff. Trust me, it tastes MUCH better.

Some of the recipes I mentioned in my previous post can be found at these locations:

Apple Bread I made this on Tuesday and it's yummy!

Zucchini Bread

Hummus This is a standby at our house. My 18 month old devours this whenever he gets the chance!

Graham Crackers These are SUPER easy! They didn't last a day at our house and with whole wheat and honey - they're pretty healthy too.

Squash Bread - Made this without the optional topping and it's still delicious. You hardly know you're eating squash. I wish I'd found this recipe sooner as we had a ton of squash this summer!

18 Month Checkup

Last Friday, I went out of town for a girls weekend. Jesse braved the task of taking Trent to the doctor for his 18 month checkup. It went well. There were no tears shed over the one shot that Trent received. He's developmentally on track for his age. Here are his height and weight stats:
Height: 35 inches tall (97th percentile)
Weight: 28.25 lbs (75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19.25 inches (75th percentile)

CSA Tuesdays

Every Tuesday, Trent and I venture out to get our veggie box. The weekly menu is revealed the Sunday before and we have until Monday afternoon to customize what we'd like for the week. This week we received green beans, a double order of winter squash, sweet potatoes, and a double order of apples. I usually get a double order of whatever the fruit offering is for the week. The CSA always offers 6 vegetables or fruits and you can double up, single order, or request none for any of the options as long as your total number equals six. I usually skip the lettuce options because we don't eat much salad at our house.

The vegetables and fruits offered change from week to week. Sometimes we'll have the same vegetable offered week after week and other vegetables will appear for a week and then not be offered again. Sweet potatoes have been in season for a while. We have accumulated at least three weeks of sweet potatoes. We also have a large supply of winter squash and that's only from today! So tonight I have been perusing the internet for winter squash and sweet potato recipes. I also have an abundance of green beans right now. Sometimes the items seem to disappear so quickly and other times I have to start getting creative to use it up before it goes bad. The latter seems to be the case for the sweet potatoes and squash (even though I enjoy both). There's just that much! So if you have any suggestions on what to do with these items, I would love to know! I'm not big on making separate casserole dishes. Normally the veggies are either in the meal (like a casserole) or they're on the side but kept simple (sauteed, roasted, etc.)

The other fun thing about getting a box of locally grown produce is TJ gets to try new foods fairly often. He has eaten such an assortment of vegetables. Tonight we had okra, cucumbers and corn from last week's box. Trent devoured the corn and cucumbers but the boy does not like okra. If it happens to sneak into his mouth, he will find a way to remove it. He makes a face every time!

Cooking in Bulk

It has been 18 months since we went from being DINKs to a family of three and in twoish months, we'll be a family of four. It's amazing the impact a child can have on the way you cook. As the primary chef/nutritionist in our family, I try to make the most of our meals. We are fortunate to live in a state where you can actually grow produce year round. So our veggies and fruits come in a CSA box each week, our grains/legumes come in buckets, and our meat comes from a local farmer. My family's health is important to me. If you are what you eat, I'd rather fill my family full of whole grains and naturally grown food than with factory made food. The downside to this is lack of convenience, so the biggest change has been cooking in bulk.

There are days when I just don't have time to cook or a certain toddler is bound and determined to keep me away from the countertops. He literally wedges himself in between me and the cabinets and pushes with all his might against me. It really makes cooking interesting! I know this will be amplified once I add a newborn to the mix. But gone are the days where we have a supply of Tombstone pizzas and Marie Callendar pot pies. So usually one night a week, I cook multiple meals at once. Tonight was my bulk cooking night.

This week's menu:
Monday: Alfredo
Tuesday: Pork Chops and Gravy
Wednesday: Black Bean Quesadillas
Thursday: Chick Pea and Parmesan Pasta
Friday: Leftovers/Clean out the Fridge Night

So today, I made the pork chops and gravy in the crockpot. It smelled SO good. I put it in tupperware for tomorrow because Tuesdays are our busiest day of the week. I made tonight's alfredo, homemade tortillas (for Wednesdays Quesadillas), and three batches of split pea soup to freeze.

Making meals to freeze helps me use up food that might otherwise go bad before I get to it and keeps us from ordering out when I don't get the chance or don't feel like cooking. I also make our snacks. We usually have homemade granola and hummus on hand. Just last week, I found a really easy homemade graham cracker recipe. It's healthy and delicious. We also have quick breads in the freezer.

Quick breads are my favorite! They are great for using up the extra produce we get in our CSA box. I make squash bread, banana bread, peach bread, strawberry bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread... you name it, I've probably made a quick bread out of it. Next up, apple bread! It's delightful with a cup of coffee in the morning and easy to pull out when company is coming over for a snack.

Eating this way requires more planning, but we are getting spoiled. Once you start making the homemade equivalents of most foods, you'll find the taste and nutritional value far superior to factory made foods.