Tim's Super Healthy Superpower Muffins

I just had to share this awesome muffin recipe Tim perfected while trying to make a snack that satisfied his sweet tooth but was also filling and nutritious. There's nothing better than guilt-free snacking. These muffins make for a delicious snack or breakfast. I may have mentioned making "Super Power" muffins that I got from Pinterest, but these don't resemble those. They are original and I am proudly sharing them here, having just baked my first batch myself. They passed the 'Rachael test'!

For me this recipe made 24 muffins, and at exactly 14 minutes they came out looking brown at the edges. I was worried they were overcooked, but they weren't at all. Tim makes 18 and he says last time they came out perfect at 16 minutes.

These will be just the thing to toss to a hungry kid in the back of the car on the way to Ohio!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups Bob's Red Mill Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/4 cup whey protein isolate, unflavored

1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal

3 raw bananas (we let them get really old and nasty)

2 eggs

1/4 cup Truvia Baking Blend

4 Tbsp PB2 powdered peanut butter

2 Tbsp raw honey

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix all dry ingredients well and set aside.

3. Blend everything else and then sift in dry ingredients.

4. Spray muffin pans.

5. Bake 14-15 minutes.

Recipe makes 24 muffins.

No-bake chocolate oatmeal bars

When I woke up this morning it was 18 degrees outside, a low that broke a 44-year-old record.  Tim got ready for work in the pitch dark because our power was out.  It went out twice this morning, but thankfully it was for no more than 45 minutes the first time, and about 15 minutes the second.  I was so grateful when it came back on and stayed on because I envisioned how my morning was going to go otherwise, and I didn't like it one bit.  Like everyone else we've had a couple days of extreme cold, but today's high is supposed to be 44 and after that we're back in the 50s and 60s.  I don't know how you people do it who have to put up with the freezing weather all winter long.  I would lose my mind.  Last night I was complaining to Tim about being cooped up indoors with the kids all day, and I said, "This is the winter of my discontent."  "It's two days!" he replied.  Yeah well, it's been long enough and I'm glad that the deep freeze is over.

With it being so cold, I feel like all I do is eat or think about eating.  (Or maybe that's just the way I am no matter what the weather.)  I discovered a new snack recipe that I want to share because it is amazing.  It's healthy too -- although probably not in the amounts we've been consuming.  I found it on Moneysavingmom and modified it a little to suit our tastes.  At first glance it's a lot like our beloved no-bake energy bites.  But the coconut oil changes the texture entirely, making it creamier; and the subtle hint of coconut flavor (I don't like a lot of coconut flavor and that's one of the modifications I made to the recipe, leaving coconut flakes out) takes it to a whole new level.  A pan of these lasts only a couple days in our house.

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract

Melt peanut butter, honey and oil over medium heat in a saucepan.  Once it's melted all melted together, remove from heat and mix in the rest of the ingredients.  Stir until chocolate is melted.  Pour the mixture into a greased 9x13 pan and put it in the fridge.  Once it's hardened, cut into bars.

We've found out that it's best to get them off the bottom of that pan as soon as possible because even though it is greased, the bars become cemented in there over time.  Then Tim has to chisel them out bit by bit with a spatula.

Dinner planning

Over the past six years of being a stay-at-home mom I have found that there are housekeeping duties that have come easily to me, and others that have been a real struggle.

Take laundry, for instance.  Whenever I hear people complain about laundry, I act like I'm commiserating and hating the thought of all the piles of clothes waiting for me.  But in reality, if they could look in my house at any given moment, they will almost never find a pile of laundry anywhere, clean or dirty.  My laundry is always in small, manageable loads.  It's neatly contained in hampers.  Then it's in the washer and dryer.  I try to take it out right away but sometimes it sits for a little too long and the wrinkle monster gets it.  I fold it right after taking it out.  It might sit on our bed for an hour or two before it gets hung in closets and put away in drawers.  Tim has a whole drawer of green t-shirts in nice little rectangles stacked on on top of the other with the sleeves on alternating sides.  Did you just throw up in your mouth a little?  Sorry.  My mom's the same way -- she's always preferred to do smaller loads of laundry frequently, just about every day.  Even with seven of us at home, the laundry never piled up.  I guess I learned from her.

Now, I'll talk about something that I've always been bad at.  Meal planning and cooking.  When we first started out, we soon discovered that I needed to make menus and use recipes.  I am a terrible cook.  I can't just throw together a bunch of things that I have and make it into a passable meal.  I wish so badly that I could, and that it didn't have to be this much work for my family to eat well.  It's not even just figuring out what to make that's hard.  It's how I make it.  I stop to wash my hands about 10 times while handling raw meat.  It takes 10 minutes to chop on vegetable because I'm scared of cutting myself.  I read the same directions again and again, and if I have more than two burners going, it's chaos.  I was that way even before I had all those little hands tugging at me.  Any gains that I've made in meal planning and cooking have been hard-won, and have required a lot of effort that I haven't always been willing to make.

Our early menus consisted of things like baked chicken breast with a side of penne and white sauce or pesto that came from a packet of powder.  And usually nothing else.  Maybe a can of corn or a can of mixed veggies that I usually wouldn't touch.  This was only about four years ago!  Other items were grilled cheese and soup.  Maybe spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf, those things are easy and they make leftovers.  Fridays have always been pizza and Thursdays were breakfast for dinner.  But my menus were very boring, unimaginative, and contained very few veggies.  Making the weekly menu was always something I dreaded, but some weeks I was better at it than others.  We ate and we survived.  Tim helped out plenty on the weekends and he's a really good cook, so we've always eaten well on Saturdays and Sundays.

The past couple years I've come a long way.  Little changes here and there have gotten me to a place that I can be somewhat proud of.  I slacked off while Tim was away because I wasn't about to do all that work for just myself.  The kids hardly eat anything I make.  After after he came back I had to kick-start menu planning again so he can come home around 6 and we can all sit down to a decent dinner.  It was so hard to get organized again after so many months of just winging it.  But I had to admit that all that my laziness was showing in the quality of the dinners.  I wasn't even happy with the things I was scrounging up.  It was time go back to the ways that worked.

Here is the system that works for us right now.  I make a monthly menu and post it on the fridge.  There are all kinds of printable menus -- monthly, four-week, two-week, and weekly -- at moneysavingmom.com, and that's where I found mine.  To minimize the time I have to spend thinking about it, we assign certain kinds of dinners to certain days. Thursdays are always breakfast for dinner, whatever kind we're in the mood for.  Fridays are always pizza with a garden salad or caprese salad.  Saturdays are a question mark because we feed the kids something, and then later have our own "date night in" dinner.  As of the last couple months, I've established Wednesdays as something Italian-inspired and Mondays are usually Mexican-inspired.  Today was the exception because it was a holiday.  You'll notice that all the weeknight meals are something simple because I need things I can do without any help, and with lots of distractions.  Sunday dinners are not usually elaborate either.  Saturday dinners are fancy and I have nothing to do with them.  That is, nothing to do with the planning and preparation.  I do enjoy eating them.  I should make another post about Saturday dinners.

Everything is subject to change.  Last month I made a lot of changes as I went along.  But it is so much easier once I make that menu and have a plan for the whole month.  I know what to put on the weekly shopping list, I know when to pull meat out of the freezer, and I know what fresh ingredients I need to buy at the store on any given morning.  In this season of life, last-minute trips to the store are an impossibility.  If it's 4:30 and I don't have it, I'm just going to have to press on without it.  As someone who has no natural aptitude in the kitchen and a strong desire to eat well, I can't stress enough the importance of planning ahead.  It has made a huge difference, at least to Tim and me.  The kids don't care, and I know they'd prefer not to have a real dinner.  It makes me sad that they eat nothing but pasta and cheese, but at the same time I am scared at the thought of what it will be like when they eat like adults.  Tim and I already eat so much and our pots and pans are only so big.

I keep my recipes in this big green binder.  Most of them come from the Internet, and others I've cut from magazines.  Most are old favorites but I'm trying to introduce at least one or two new things each month.  The beef stir fry at the end of the month is new, highly recommended on a blog I read often that seems like a reliable source.  The binder isn't well organized, and there are a lot of loose papers floating in there, but I don't have any problems finding what I need.

I know I still have lots of room to improve.  I need to be serving more leafy greens besides salads.  I still think we could use more diversity as far as what kinds of meats we're using, and I've fallen in a rut there, just wanting to use what I'm comfortable with.  Sauce from a packet of powder has long been a thing of the past, but I'm sure we could cut more processed stuff out of our diet.  I'm always evolving.  Tilapia was a new addition to last months's menu and we loved it.

What I would really like as we get into fall would be a couple of super-easy but also healthy weeknight dinners that would allow me to not have to be in the kitchen for so long.  Tim got rid of our crock pot a few years ago after everything we cooked in it had a terrible aftertaste.  (It was a new crock pot too, so I still wonder what was wrong with it.)  I'd love to be able to make a crock pot dinner once or twice a week to free me up to take Timmy down the street to play at the neighbors' (or even just to take him outside -- he loves playing outside, but since he needs direct supervision at all times he has to stay in), or to not have to worry about what's for dinner after soccer practice.  It can be really difficult to have to spend all afternoon on meal preparation when the kids want my attention for so many different things.  Another option besides the crock pot would be a make-ahead meal that I could keep in the freezer.  It would take even more planning and organization, but that could work.  Tim gives me a hard time for it but yes, I'm always looking for shortcuts.  Guilty as charged.

Emerald Isle

We just got back from a week-long stay in a beach house in Emerald Isle, NC.  We had such a great time.  In almost every way it was perfect, and exactly what I hoped that this summer's last hurrah would be.  Being the weather.com addict that I am, I must have checked the forecast for that week at least 25 times, and every time it looked like crap, thunderstorms every day.  We hoped for at least an hour or two of sun here and there, but instead we were gifted with six gorgeous blue sky days in a row.  Tim and I were both a little leery of what kind of house we were getting into, after what happened at Topsail.  But the house was clean and comfortable, and decorated with bright colors and happy fishies and flipflops.  No nasty surprises after dark.  As always, the best thing of all was that view and the smell of that salty air.  It is my dream to live on the beach some day.  Tim is in the throes of midlife crisis right now (but he's not even 39, isn't that a little young?), and he's always talking about a new car, truck or boat.  I said to him, "How about we have a midlife crisis together and get a beach house?"  Beachfront houses too expensive?  We can trade in my nice car for a beater and get rid of cable.  Or live in a big van down by the beach.  It is fun to dream.

Delaney lost her first tooth on Sunday morning.  She was very proud and kept wanting to hold it and look at it.  She smiles for pictures in such a way as to make sure that gap shows.  Love this kid.

We went out for dinner three times.  Two of those times were to nice seafood restaurants, and one was just a burger joint.  Going out so many times in one week made me giddy.  I think the last time we'd gone out to eat before this vacation must have been when Grace was visiting.  We go out to eat only on vacations and when relatives visit.  It is true that Tim cooks as good and usually better meals at home, and I am happy to not have the hassle of hiring a babysitter.  But sometimes I love to put on something nice and have a change of scenery.  I called one of the places to verify that we should bring the kids, since the website looked kind of fancy.  They told me it was fine to bring kids, so no problem there.  However, the food was mediocre and that was disappointing since it had been highly recommended to us.  I blame Tim for making me into a food snob, particularly when it comes to seafood.  I can't stand an overcooked frozen scallop at the restaurant that boasts of being a premiere waterfront dining experience.  It's his fault, he made me this way.  Before I met him I was content with cheeseburgers at Ruby Tuesday.  Also, the view was not great.  Even still, I liked being out.  And we went for ice cream afterward.

But the restaurant we went to on night two was so nice.  I loved the food, loved the view, loved the wine.  And the kids were very good.  Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time one of our kids was disruptive in a restaurant.  Even Timmy is at his best when we're out to eat, especially if there's a window he can look out or something else interesting to watch.   Maybe we should do this more often, like once a month.

I said that we had six sunny days in a row, but now that I look at the pictures I remember that's not completely true.  The morning of day three was rainy.  The girls and I sat at the table and we played Disney Princess Uno, which is almost exactly like regular Uno, with only a few variations.  It's a lot of fun, and it even holds Annie's interest for a good half hour or so.  The only problem is that when it doesn't go her way she loses her temper.  We refuse to let her win.  She is capable of winning fair and square, and she did at least a couple times.  The other times she was not a graceful loser.  Still it was a nice way to make some time go by on a rainy morning.  Then it cleared up and we were back to beach activities (thank goodness because that was the only game I'd brought -- not very well prepared, was I, in light of the bad weather forecast?).  

These next few pictures took place after dinner that day, I believe.  We'd gone outside only to fly kites, and for awhile that was what everybody did.  But the tide was in and there were these long shallow pools that proved too enticing for the kiddos.  At first they contented themselves with running and stomping and splashing.

But the splashes got bigger and their clothes got wetter until Delaney decided to completely submerge herself.  Once she did that and they all saw that we weren't going to stop them, the other two abandoned any remaining pretense of trying to stay dry, since that was a lost cause anyway.

Dried off and ready for bed

Day 4 began with Tim taking the girls on a walk at sunrise while Timmy and I slept.  That boy makes up for being such a handful by being a solid sleeper, even on vacation.  

Then we spent a few hours on the beach.  Throughout this whole day I noticed a curious phenomenon, where it was sunny on the side of the sky that the ocean was on, but if I looked behind me there were lots of dark gray clouds.  I kept thinking that those clouds were going to roll over and there would be a storm, but it's like they knew to stay back.   Good clouds!

Later on, Tim made us a yummy dinner of burgers, pasta salad (from the grocery store deli), and corn on the cob.  He makes my life easier in so many ways when he's around.

Delaney liked not having to make any effort to keep her kite aloft.  Here she is digging in the sand, not having to think about her kite flying high above.

This was the night of the Blue Moon and Tim and I were obsessed with trying to get a good picture of it.  But our camera has its limitations (or maybe just we do) and a picture can't do it justice anyway.  We had a spectacular view of the moon every night of the week.  I can't remember paying so much attention to the moon at any other time in my life.  I left the curtains open over the sliding glass doors in our bedroom and looked at it every night before I went to sleep.

On Wednesday, day 5, we took our scheduled dolphin hunt boat tour.  Tim amused himself by asking Delaney, "So, what do we use to catch the dolphins?"  "What are we going to do with the dolphins when we bring them home?"  Delaney would tell him in exasperation, "No, Daddy, that's not what dolphin hunt means.  It just means we look at them!"  The boat ride was about an hour and 15 minutes long.  It was hot.  There were red, shiny faces all around.  It was the only time during this vacation that I wished for clouds.  I told Tim later that I know for sure now that we are not boat people.  I have more appreciation than ever for being on shore.  Tim argued that having your own boat is a way different experience than being stuck on someone else's boat.  Perhaps he's right, but I am still have no wish to get a boat.

The boat we rode on was in the same port in Morehead City where Tim got on a ship two and a half years ago.  The ship he was on was much bigger, though.  The one pictured above that we saw as we left the port is an LPD, the USS New York -- an amphibious transport dock ship.  

We did see dolphins.  But we also saw dolphins just standing on the beach at our house.  We also saw the Spanish Mustangs on Shackleford Island too, but they were very far away and .. meh.  The captain would stop the boat so we could look, but there was no breeze and we sat there baking.  We had to keep passing Timmy back and forth and make sure he didn't climb up and over the side.  I was relieved when it was over. This tour would probably be lovely on a cooler, breezier, or and/or cloudier day.  And without a two-year-old.

The next two days passed in a blur.  Beach, naps, dinners, ice cream, kites, walks, a game of Princess Uno once or twice .. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Thursday and Friday:

OK, this isn't actually from Thursday or Friday, but it could have been.  We went to The Sweet Spot three nights in a row.  After one time we were hooked.  They have a gazillion flavors of ice cream and a toy corner in the back, with toys that are actually for sale, but the kids knew they got to just play with them and put them back.  They forgot all about the ice cream when they saw the toys.

Delaney had some money to spend, from the Tooth Fairy and from doing chores.  She spent all her money on a stuffed crab mama with baby that she found at The Sweet Spot.  But it wasn't an easy decision.  Tim took her to three different stores, and she told me that she hadn't found anything she liked.  Instead she wanted to buy a stuffed German Shepherd puppy on Toys 'R Us online.  I looked back and forth between the two of them and said, "You are clearly your father's daughter."  I know that at the age of 6 I could have (and did) walked into Wings or any other souvenir place and found all kinds of things to waste money on happily.  A young Tim, on the other hand, would have just kept shopping around, finding fault with everything, and saving his money for something he really liked.  Not that there's anything wrong with that -- just that being such a discerning shopper was not something I had learned as a small child.  In the end, she found "Crabsy" and "Snapper" and really liked them, so that's what she got.

We were watching the moon rise.  Timmy was saying, "Moon."

3 + hour naps every afternoon.  I took this picture when I had to wake him up to get ready for dinner.

This skinny little man is still wearing his trunks from last summer that are size 12 months and 12-18 respectively.  And the 12-18 month ones are too big!  It's not unheard of, though.  A friend of mine once told me her four-year-old son is on his third year in the same swim trunks.

Timmy was really being the Turd on Friday morning and I was getting fed up.  He wouldn't leave me alone.  He would take my hand and say, "Come on," indicating the water, but then would want to be picked up because he was suddenly "scared."  Even though he hasn't been scared of the ocean at any other time this whole summer.  He would say, "Up, up," and cry when I sat in the chair with him instead of standing while holding him.  Then Tim, after reminding me for the umpteenth time about how I had made Timmy this way, decided to take all the kids on a walk and give me a break.  I was never so happy to see their retreating figures.  I watched them walk away for awhile until I was sure that Timmy wouldn't turn around and freak out when he saw me going in the water.

On an unrelated note, another thing Tim and I liked about our location was that at any given time we were out there, we had our stretch of beach almost all to ourselves.  We would see clusters of people up and down the beach, but our area for whatever reason, was not very populated.  We liked having space.

I really wish I'd have gotten a picture of Tim holding his Princess Uno cards, or one of he and Annie staring each other down after he won.  Best of all would have been a video of he and Delaney doing their victory dance after we played as teams and they beat Annie and me.

Looking for seashells on our last night

We were talking today about the things that made this vacation so wonderful and what makes us miss it so much.  For me it was how relaxing it was and how even the mundane (like bathing kids or cleaning the kitchen) felt special with that view out the window.  I was in a different mindset.  I laughed more, I had more patience, and didn't worry about anything.  Tim mentioned that he liked being away from "our stuff."  When he's here he feels like there are so many things that need to be taken care of, cleaned, fixed, or maintained in some other way.  That's what vacation is supposed to be, a break from the everyday and all the "stuff" that weighs us down, and a chance to just enjoy each other's company.  That's not to say the kids never got on each other's nerves or our nerves, and needed to be disciplined at times.  But it was all somehow easier to deal with in this setting.  It was only 40 minutes away but it was a world away.

We spent the rest of the this weekend in a post-vacation funk.  It was inevitable.  We did some last-minute shopping for school supplies in the picked-over aisles of Target and Walmart.  Delaney moped all day today and told us many times that she does not want to go back to school.  I feel like the biggest slacker mom ever because she has nothing new to wear to school.  I took the only two things that weren't stained out of her closet, and that's what she's wearing tomorrow.  

And with that, our summer's over.  It was a great one.

Nutritious snacks for a mom and kids who are constantly eating

I've been thinking a lot about snacks lately.  No one who knows me is surprised by that.  In fact they would probably roll their eyes and say, "When are you NOT thinking about a snack?"  I know I eat a lot.  I say "lately" for a couple reasons:  The first is, I've been gradually trying to move away from snacks that are processed and packaged and salty and sugary.  I want things that are better for the body.  The second reason is, it turns out I'm raising three little ones with growing bodies and appetites that are a lot like mine.  I try to limit the snack times for all of us to just twice a day -- between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner.  And I want to make them count so I don't have to keep fending them off until the next meal (all the while looking longingly at the cupboards and fridge myself.  After all, I can't be telling them it's not time to eat if I'm sitting there noshing.)  Not to mention I have all kinds of things I'd rather be doing than preparing and serving food all day.  But it's hard to resist the temptation to just give them a bunch of crackers when they ask for a snack and be done with it.  Crackers are their favorite.  For the last few months, I have only been buying one box of crackers a week instead of the two or three I bought before.  But then I have to replace the salty beloved cracker with something else that's equally satisfying.  I'm always on the lookout for things that don't take much time to put together, that are healthy, and appealing to the kids.

These are the things I've come up with so far:

1) No-bake energy bites.  If you're on Pinterest you've probably seen a version of these from time to time.  Mine are adapted from this recipe.  It's oatmeal, ground flaxseed, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, chocolate chips, and I replace the coconut it calls for with whatever cereal I have on hand since I don't like coconut.  Mix it all together, let it chill in the fridge, and roll it into balls.  Delicious!  And if you like letting your kids help you in the kitchen (I really don't, but I allow it), this is a perfect recipe for that.  I serve them with breakfast, between meals, and I even like them for dessert sometimes.  We go through them quickly around here.  They are filling and they have lots of fiber, which is great for all of us, but especially for Annie.  She is my pickiest eater and there are days when she doesn't eat much at all and has trouble going to the bathroom.  That's when I know I'd better whip up another batch.  What I don't like about this recipe is the hassle of having to measure out peanut butter and honey, and using a spatula to scrape it out of measuring cups (and then get those measuring cups clean!).  I should be able to eyeball the amounts by now, as many times as I've made these, so maybe I'll try that next time.

2) Fresh fruit is always a winner.  I usually go to the nice grocery store once or twice a week and get whatever fruits are in season, on sale and look good.  Now that it's berry season my kids love that.  And of course I keep bananas on the counter year-round.  The problem with fresh fruit is, it lasts a minute in this house, and then we fall back on the diced fruit cups which they also love, but I'm not so sure they're good for us at all.  We've gone a few days without any fresh fruit in this house, and it's hard to find the motivation to go the grocery store with all three of them during spring break.  Hopefully in the next couple days I'll get back into going twice a week to keep up our supply.

3) Fresh veggies are another thing I've tried.  At least a few times we've come back from the bus stop and I've had a nice snack platter set out on the table with baby carrots, bell pepper slices, and some hummus.  I've tried avacado too.  I want to encourage them -and me -- to eat more of those things.  That goes over like a fart in church.  None of my kids want to see a fresh vegetable at snack time.  They are definitely my children.  I myself would not touch a bell pepper of any color until I was at least 28.  Until I was in my early 20s, I had a rule that I would not eat anything green.  Then I discovered guacamole at a Mexican restaurant and made an exception for that.  But it was many more years before I expanded my palate to include green vegetables.  What really helped open my mind was to watch them being prepared at one of those Japanese restaurants with the hibachi chef sauteeing (?)  grilling (?) them right in front of me.  I saw the way they were being seasoned, smelled them as they cooked, and it was very appetizing.  I've made my own stir-fries here at home, and have always liked them.  Funny story:  At Thanksgiving at my friend Kelly's house, I tried a veggy before I knew what it was, and noted it had a nice nutty flavor.  I asked what it was, and was floored when I was told it was a brussels sprout.  Tim pointed out to me a little while later that I did not eat any more of them after I found out their name.  I have a bad childhood memory associated with a brussels sprout.  I'm a work in progress but I have improved a lot over the years.  The kids will eat a veggy here and there.  I seem to have the best luck when I steam them.  But I am not steaming them for snack time.  So far raw veggies are not appreciated by anybody in my house but me.  And even then, I have to make myself eat those instead of something more tempting like crackers.  My old beige food-eating habits die hard.  But I've survived and turned out quite healthy in spite of that, so my hope is that my kids will too.  I just hope it doesn't take them 25 years to learn!

4) Cheese snacks and yogurt.  We spend most of our grocery money in the dairy aisle every week.  We are huge dairy eaters.  As long as we can tolerate it, that's all well and good.  We get protein and calcium that way.  But my constipation-prone Annie loves her dairy a little too much and I wish she'd balance it out more with fiber-filled foods.  I know they make those yogurts like Activia, that help keep things moving.  But I'm a little worried about the artificial sweeteners in those.  If it's something they eat a lot I'd rather it didn't contain artificial sweeteners.

5) Granola bars.  I found an easy recipe that makes about 24 to 30 of them, depending on how you cut them.  They have a nice chewy texture and they aren't a crumbly mess at all.  They only take a half hour start to finish, but even that's more time than I usually want to spend.  I don't cook because I like to cook -- I cook because I like to EAT.  I also kiss an entire stick of butter goodbye every time I make them and that seems like a lot.  Everybody except Delaney likes them and that's too bad because they are perfect for school lunches.  The little stinker would gobble up a Quaker granola bar in a nice shiny wrapper, I just know it.  Too bad, I'm not buying those.

6) Trail mix and dried fruit.  I try to serve these at snack time now and then, but they aren't  received well.  They move it around and pick around, eating this and that, telling me they don't like this or that, and being hungry still.  I feel like we end up wasting a lot of trail mix because it gets old in the cupboards when none of us likes it very much.  And that's a shame because that stuff is expensive.

One day I'd love to be able to completely give up the things that come in a package and last forever, but I'm afraid of what will happen when we run out of fresh foods and have nothing left.  I get a little panicky at the thought.  I figure fruit cups are better than no fruit at all.. right?  

With summer approaching, I'd love ideas for more healthy and portable snacks for the pool or beach that don't require much effort on my part.  Last year I brought a lot of Goldfish which they loved, but I'll see if I can do better than that this year.

Day in the Life: Winter 2013

It is time again for Navigating the Mothership's quarterly Day in the Life roundup, in which I take the opportunity to share with anyone patient enough to read, all the minutiae that make up a typical day in my world.  (And I get to stalk other people's days and that's fun too.:)

Today is Friday, January 18.

6 a.m. My alarm goes off.  I remember that Delaney has no school today and I'm so relieved to be able to turn off my alarm and go back to sleep instead of coaxing an increasingly sluggish little girl out of bed.  Gradually over the course of several months, Delaney has gone from waking up before Mr. Clock... to rolling out of bed as soon as I walk in and turn on the light.. to where she is now, moaning and groaning and curling in a ball when I try to wake her up.  Ugh.  If there's one good thing about the holiday weekend, it's not having to deal with that for four mornings.

7:23 a.m.  I hear, "Mama, Timmy's awake, can we go talk to him?"  I say, "OK, go ahead."  Then I hear, "Mama, Mama, there's a huge waterbug here!"  I say groggily, "It won't hurt you, sweetie, I'll take care of it when I get up."  Just a few more minutes..

7:30 a.m. Delaney tells me that she took care of the bug herself and it's outside now.  Good.  That's two of those things in our house in the last two days.  I don't like that.

7:33 a.m. I finally head over to Timmy's room, get him out of bed, nurse him, and change his diaper.  He's not happy about the diaper change, and he cries and tries to wiggle away.  Then I realize he's really wet and his PJs are wet too.  He gets really mad when I go to take his PJs off and he tries to hit me.  It is so exhausting having to wrestle a baby first thing in the morning!

7:40 a.m. Getting into Delaney's BOB books makes him feel better.  But those books are not very sturdy and Delaney and I happen to like them a lot.  So I put them up and he cries again.  Sorry, Timmy.

7:45 a.m. Time for breakfast.  Delaney's going to get her own.  Uh-oh.  We have no more instant oatmeal packets.  I will have to try making oatmeal another way that I've been meaning to try anyway.  I get out the big container of oats, some brown sugar, cinnamon, and get some water boiling.  I put Timmy in his chair and boy, oh boy, he's not happy about that either.  Delaney gives him some Cheerios to have while he waits for his oatmeal.  He tosses them off his tray while he cries.  When Delaney sees that I'm putting brown sugar in the oatmeal, it looks more appealing to her than her Honey Nut Cheerios, and she asks me to make her some too.

8:10 a.m. At long last the oatmeal is ready.  Delaney and Timmy like it.  Annie and I don't.  I don't like the texture or the flavor.  Yuck.  Then I remember I still have pancakes from 'breakfast for dinner' last night.  I give some to the kids too.  It's still not much of a breakfast, but it's enough for now.  I'll probably have something else in an hour or two.

I know I said before that it was too late for baby sign language with Timmy, but lately I've found myself using signs anyway.  He loves them.  We do "more", "drink," "juice," and "all done", among others.  Some of the signs are ones I use out of old habit from when the girls were babies, like "bath" and "milk."  I still don't know if it serves much purpose since he should be talking soon anyway, but he responds enthusiastically to them and  remembers them.  So I've been breaking out my whole repertoire.  It's fun.  I've also heard that they aid language development in kids who are already talking.  This morning he's trying to make the "juice" sign, sweeping his index finger in the air instead of his pinkie.

8:10 to 9 a.m. Annie heads upstairs after she's done eating, but Delaney, Timmy and I stay at the table for a long time.  Timmy stays because he can't go anywhere unless we let him out.  I stay and drink my coffee.  Delaney stays because she is enjoying herself.  She flips through an old notebook that she has appropriated from the office.  She finds our Christmas list and asks what it is.  "Uh.."  I see that her name and those of her siblings are listed.  "Those are people that Daddy and I were thinking about at Christmas time."  She goes through the list name by name.  Then she asks me if owls are nocturnal.  I know she knows they are, so I say, "No, they're not.  I see them out and about all day long."  Then she decides to write a book.  The title is I Can See the World.  It is a favorite theme of hers.  There is also a drawing hanging in the playroom with "I can see the world" written on it.  She asks me to staple it for her, and I do.

9 to 10 a.m. It is a slow morning.  There is a lot of TV-watching going on up in the playroom.  There is a lot of me having trouble getting motivated.  I get so much more done on a typical weekday morning than I'm getting done now.  Having nowhere to go until 11 is making me lazy and unmotivated.  I manage to get the dishwasher emptied, my bed made, and some laundry put away, but I am unfocused.  I warn the kids that my friend Kelly may decide to cancel the CrossFit Kids workout at the park today because the ground will probably be wet from all the rain we got last night.  I start thinking of a plan B, maybe a trip to the Dollar Store?  I text Kelly asking if we're still on, and to my surprise we are!

10 to 10:45 a.m  Time to get ready to go.  I wish I could fast forward through this part.  I feel too lazy to brush all their teeth, fix their hair, get everybody dressed, and throw together a picnic lunch.  I've had the whole morning to get all of this done, but waited till the last possible minute.  Finally we leave for the park.

10:55 a.m. We're the first to arrive.  It is cold today, the coldest day we've had in awhile.  

11:00 a.m. Everyone else arrives and it's time to start wearing some kids out for afternoon nap.

12 p.m. It is very windy, very cold, but everybody has had fun.  Now the kids -- mostly my kids -- are falling apart fast and it's time to get home.  I tell the girls we're going to have our picnic lunch in the kitchen.  I can't imagine eating in this wind.  I promise them hot chocolate with lunch, thank Kelly, and we're on our way.

12:15 to 3:30 p.m. I get the kids home and start tossing food on the table as fast as I can.  Once they finish their lunch and hot chocolate, I read them a story and get Annie and Timmy down for naps around 1.  Delaney goes up to the playroom and I can hear her chitchatting as she plays probably with the frog and lizard "family" she's been favoring lately.  I fix my own lunch, eat it quickly, and then settle down to enjoy naptime.  I read, take a 20-minute power nap, read some more and make some tea.  I realize that I have a really good life.

3:30 p.m. Annie is awake and hungry.  I notice how pink her cheeks are, and remember that she has had a cough since yesterday.  I feel her and she's warm.  Oh no, Annie.  At least she has an appetite.  She finishes the toast I make her for a snack, and aside from the cough and being tired, she doesn't seem uncomfortable.

3:45 p.m. I take a few minutes before Timmy gets up to get the pizza ready.  It is a cinch since all I had to do was pull the dough and sauce out of the freezer the day before.  But what's this?  No shredded mozzarella at all?  Oh, man.  I've got a little bit of fresh mozzarella left from the stuffed shells Tim made a few days ago (was that really just a few days ago?).  I hope that will just be enough.  It will have to just be enough because there's no way I'm taking these kids to a store right now!  I'm running out of a lot of our staples but with the exception of short trips for fresh produce, I'm trying to make do with what we have until I go to the commissary on Tuesday.  It's getting to be pretty bare but nothing is going to waste.  I'm using up the last of our fresh veggies in a black bean soup I'm making tomorrow.  (I won't know until tomorrow that I'm out of black beans too, and again I'll have to improvise.)  It's a bumpy transition to me being in charge of the groceries again.  Tim is good at keeping the cupboards and fridge full of our favorite things.

4 p.m. Timmy's finally up too, and after I change him and turn him loose he beckons me to come up to the playroom with him.  I take a few minutes to play with my boy.

He can take it apart.. 

.. and put it back together!  Isn't he brilliant?

4:30 p.m. I have the pizza ready early because I want to start movie night at 5 or a little after.  Without all the cheese our pizza normally has, it is a very light pizza.  Before the night is over I will have eaten nearly all of it myself.

4:45 p.m. We sit down to eat.  Annie doesn't eat much and soon goes upstairs to lie down on the Elmo couch.  Poor Annie.  While the rest of us are still eating, we get a surprise.  Ring, ring, who could it be?

 

Tim is still at his last stop somewhere that ends in "stan" en route to Afghanistan.  We talk for a few minutes about this and that, and at some point in the conversation I start cracking up.  Tim says, "What?"  I say, "I have to chuckle because we look like Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head on FaceTime."  Our faces are giant ovals that take up the whole screen.  Tim thinks it's kind of funny too, or maybe he's just amused at me being amused.

He took this screen shot not even knowing I was doing "Day in the Life" today.  How handy.

We have gotten to hear from Tim three out of the four days he's been gone, and that has been great.  He tells me that  I might not be hearing from him this often in the future, and I understand that.  I take what I can get.  That phone is an appendage and I am always ready for a call.  Tim is looking forward to getting to his final destination where he'll be busy and have a routine.  Being transient is getting old.  Except for a nagging cough and sniffle, he is feeling well.

5:30 p.m. The kids have been bathed and are in their pajamas.  Time for the movie.  Tonight's showing is The Lion King 1 1/2, something I recorded on Disney Junior. I pop some popcorn and Timmy is so excited to hear it popping.  He says, "Ca-cawn!  Ca-cawn!" and he points eagerly at the microwave when it beeps.  I know he's going to make a mess out of it but I am happy to give him a cup of his own.  And of course, they  each get a jellybean.  Day 4 of this deployment done!

The kitchen is still messy but I resist the urge to clean it up while the movie's on.  I sit down and try to enjoy it with them -- as much as I can since one after another of them is constantly asking for something.  

6:45 p.m. The movie is over.  I brush their teeth and tuck the girls into bed first.  I know I won't be getting any trouble from them tonight because Annie crawls into bed as soon as her teeth are brushed.  Then I change Timmy one last time and nurse him before putting him to bed too.

7:05 to 7:45 p.m.  I've got some things to do before I can call it a night.  I put a load of laundry in the washer to soak.  I start loading the dishwasher and clearing the table and after that I'll -- what's this I hear?  Ring, ring.  It's Tim again.  Twice in one day!  I talk to him while I walk outside to check the mail.  He says, "What's that behind you?"  Very funny.  We talk for a few minutes, and then he wants to try Skype because he thinks the microphone on my phone is messed up.  After a few minutes on Skype he wants to try FaceTime again.  It's too bad my microphone isn't working well because with FaceTime the picture is so much better than Skype and it's so much more convenient and handy too.  He tells me to use the compressed air to clean out the charger port of my phone.  Maybe it helps a little.  It is an old phone, but I would hate to have to get a new iPhone while he's gone and have to set it up myself.  After we hang up it's back to cleaning up the kitchen, sweeping the floor, and picking up the living room.  

7:45 p.m.  I'm done!  Time to relax and call it a night.  The first thing I do is open the fridge.  Most of Tim's favorite beers are still there.  They're from the Samuel Adams winter collection.  He did not get to drink any of them right  before he left because he was sick.  I'm going to do my part and finish them off myself.  Did you know beer has an expiration?  I can not allow that to happen.  Old Fezziwig Ale is calling my name.  Old Fezziwig it is, then.  I take a sip, wrinkle my nose and regret not picking one of my favorites instead.  But now I have to finish it.  I take small sips.

8 to 11 p.m.  I turn on the TV mostly for background noise.  Betty White's Off Their Rockers comes on.  I watch here and there for a minute and then say to myself, 'Of course, old people talking about sex is always hilarious.  Why didn't anybody ever think of that before?'  I check email and Facebook for the umpteenth time.  I work on this post.  I check on Annie a couple times.  She's coughing a lot and she's still feverish so I give her a dose of Little Colds.  I bring her the water she asks for.  I stroke her forehead and cheeks and give her a kiss before I leave.  I stay up later than I really want to because I want to make sure she's OK before I turn in.  I hope she wakes up better.

11 p.m. I check on Annie one last time.  She is sleeping peacefully.  The house is quiet and still.  I turn off all the lights, start the dishwasher and head to bed.