Breakfast Ideas

Well, to go along with my last post about how happy I am that school is starting again, I have to think about breakfast again. Quick nutritious breakfasts. I'm trying to wean out the Cinnamon Eggos; while quick, tasty and almost mess-less as they can be eaten without syrup I'm sure that they have the nutritional equivalent of cardboard. It's hard to get breakfast made and eaten and 3 boys plus myself up and ready and out of the door on time. Without a lot of screaming. I'm hoping that we can cut down on the amount of morning fits this year. That applies to all of us, but is another post entirely.

So, I'm going to start posting breakfast ideas. I'll try them out, you try them out and we'll compare notes. I found this one today at Balancing Beauty & Bedlam. Hm, it sounds good and it looks good, so we shall see. Plus, I bet it could be made and cooked the night before and re-heated in the morning.

Baked Oatmeal

5 cups rolled oats (not instant...rolled and steel cut are where the health benefits abound)

2 cups milk

4 large eggs

3/4 cup honey

1 TB Baking Powder

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Seasonal fruit ( I have enjoyed strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches, apples etc).

Mix together and pour into a 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown. We serve with milk and a bit of syrup (optional) This reheats well.

Welcome Back!

To school that is! Can you tell that I'm getting excited LOL! I'm both excited and apprehensive about Alek moving into grade 3.

He finally had a positive year last year and had such an AMAZING teacher, that I'm scared for what this year will bring. Alek has grown a lot over the last year, and his social skills are improving all the time, but... he can still be a challenge. His first few years of school were so horrible that I don't think any of us can handle any more experiences like that. Please, cross your fingers (and your toes, and your eyes, and you legs, and your arms and your feet) that he gets a teacher who "gets him" again this year. He's such a bright, funny loving kid and it's soooo hard for his mommma to see him labeled incorrectly.

I'm also looking forward to the kids coming back and getting into the swing of school here again. I can't wait to see them all again and hear how their summers were. Well, maybe after a few well deserved days off for me first LOL!

Star Wars Printable

While perusing my "must visit daily" blog list, I came across these which must find a home on some of Alek's school supplies. Maybe duotangs??? Pencil Crayons??? Pencil cases???

Get yours at Living Locurto.

Love

I love my boys. I've been wanting some jewelery memento to wear that honors my role as a mother to my sons, but have never found anything that calls to me until now. Everything is always too flashy and dare I say; gaudy. Tonight I came across The Vintage Pearl. My god, her stuff is amazing! Check out her site and you'll see what I mean.

I LOVE this pendent, and I think it would look cute on a cord necklace of some kind since I can't wear silver. I love the pendent so much that I would suck it up and wear it though. And wouldn't these spoons make a wonderful baby gift? Love, love, love it!

Oh, Chantal...

how I love you. I love this song, and almost everything that she has done.

Bakugan

Tonight Alek managed to unearth a game from the depths of his room. And I do mean depths. He tried to assure me that he has a system for finding things, but I honestly can't imagine what it would be. Whatever rolls off the heap is what he was looking for? He lets items find him and not the other way around?

Anyway, he came upstairs with a Bakugan card game that I had bought him quite awhile ago that he wanted to play. It was interesting since I know less than absolutely nothing about Bakugan and he couldn't seen to differentiate between the cartoon and the card game. I think we were playing separate versions of the same game most of the time LOL! It was fun, it was nice spending some one on one time with him and the teacher in me is happy, he knows the difference between greater and less than numbers!

I may just have to hide the game in the depths of my purse to play with some of my students before it is returned to the pile in his room.

A Naturist Doctor???

Tonight after his bath, while air drying, Mikah was pretending to be a doctor. This is one of his favorite games; he gets to check us over for any ailment, imaginary or real and then treats us in the way that he best sees fit. His remedies vary from a loving kiss, a gentle wipe with a cloth, a hard whack or a poke with a painful object, or a new solution... spitting on the bruise. He told me that that is what a Dr. does to make a bruise feel better.

He also told me that Dr.'s don't wear diapers, or pants for that matter. They have bare bums. I wonder how his future patients will feel about his naturist philosophy.

Mmm, Haggis...???

Alek has been after me for months to make him Haggis. Why??? I have no idea but I'm thinking that I have his teacher to thank for this particular idea. It seems that the grade 2's had an in depth study of Scotland going on near the end of the year.

I have tried everything to dissuade Alek from the notion that Haggis is really something that he wanted to eat. I told him that I would NEVER cook it (yuck), and I even showed him a YouTube video of someone cooking Haggis. It was disgusting, but his eyes never strayed from the screen. I could hardly watch, but it only renewed his passion for Haggis. I finally broke down and told him that if we ever went somewhere to eat where Haggis was on the menu I would happily order it for him. Then he was happy.

Last night was Alek's lucky night. Folk Fest is happening in the city right now and I heard that the Scottish Pavilion serves Haggis. Yay!!! So, the Mr. and I planned a little surprise for Alek and we loaded the brood into the van and headed to Prairieland Park. I had told Alek earlier in the day that we had a surprise for him that night, and he had been busy guessing for hours what it was that we were going to be doing. Man, that kid has an imagination! But, most of you know that already LOL! When we showed up at the exhibition grounds and he saw all of the cars he REALLY got excited. "Is it the RV show???" he screamed with more enthusiasm than a future Arizona-bound-snowbird. I think he actually leaped out of the van before we had even parked, he was that excited about touring trailers and RV's. "No," I finally managed to tell him when he would let me get a word in, "it's not the RV show. We're going to experience some culture." "Ok," said Alek, who still managed to look excited. "Wait a minute, isn't yogurt made out of culture? I can't believe you brought me to a place where all they have is yogurt!" His happiness had quickly been replaced with horror and anger. Which only deepened when he heard how hard Lev and I were laughing. Only our 8 year old son could make the leap from culture to yogurt! God, it was so funny, and maybe a little scary for me. There are times when I just can't believe how much this kid knows.

After that, Lev broke down and told him what I meant by "culture", and what we were about to do. A big part of me really believed that when confronted with the imminent arrival of Haggis, Alek would change his mind. But he didn't. He loved it. He licked his plate. I had two bites and still can't seem to get the taste out of my mouth. Alek wanted to buy an imported tinned Haggis to take home. We drew the line there.

Movies, Movies, Movies and Popcorn

I'm feeling the need people! You know, the need to go out and indulge in a big bag of buttery popcorn and a great movie.

Here are some that are on my "wish to watch" list

• Funny People
• Julie & Julia
• The Ugly Truth
• Away We Go
• The Time Traveller's Wife

And movies that I need to watch while cozied up on my couch

• I Love You Man (I'm so buying this today!!!)
• Two Lovers
• Sunshine Cleaning
• One Week

Wedding Cupcakes

Okay, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the cupcakes that I made for my cousin's wedding. I've even had to sneak home for a few uninterrupted afternoon hours to get it done. Maybe I'll get other things accomplished around the house too, but I doubt it.

The cupcakes were painstaking but I loved every minute of it! Everything was handmade, right down to the tiny gumpaste flowers that decorated the stands. The cupcakes were a huge hit, and it was so nice to see people freely wandering past the table all night long snagging a treat for themselves. The carrot cupcakes with rich cream cheese icing were the hands down favorite; with many people requesting the recipe, and no, it's not a family secret.

So... here it is (note... I didn't have coconut in the cupcakes that I made).

Moist Carrot Cake

3 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x12 inch pan.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well.
In a medium bowl, combine shredded carrots, coconut, walnuts, pineapple.
Using a large wooden spoon or a very heavy whisk, add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well.
Pour into prepared 8x12 inch pan, and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour. Check with toothpick.
Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Sinfully Rich Cream Cheese Icing
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 or 3cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy (about 6 minutes). Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Whip until light, about 3minutes. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Incognito

Don't you wish that you could just slap one of these on your face and go about your business. I would just be the strange mustache-lady moving about the house doing chores. The kids would be much too wary of me to make contact in any way.

Maybe something would finally get accomplished.