Spring Breakin'

It's Spring Break for Lincoln's school this week, and I had BIG plans. I spent hours scouring Pinterest for fun activities we could do, so that his days would be filled with something other than tv. There were so many ideas, I couldn't wait to get started! He was going to think I was the best mom ever.

And then shit happened. Literally. 

Last Friday the kid started exploding from both ends. He missed his spring play at school that we had been practicing for for a month. And just now, SIX days later, he's finally starting to feel better. He ate three pieces of toast this morning, so I think his appetites back. And no explosions so far today (I'm knocking on all the wood I can find right now). But now the little one has caught it, and so I'm straight scurred that I'm in for 6 more days of my house smelling like ass. We are in desperate need of fresh air, but it's freezing outside. WTF Spring Break????

This is not the Spring Break I expected....

I suppose this is ok, since they're both sick already...

Thank god for Photo Booth. It's provided is with hours of entertainment. Don't mind my children, they've been in their pajamas for a week, no big deal.

As the kids were laying on the makeshift bed I made on the living room floor, quietly watching Sesame Street, I was reminiscing about the Spring Breaks of my youth.

There were the ones where you were just excited to get to hang with your friends all week. Riding bikes, climbing trees, watching movies, staying up late.

Then there was the WHOOOOOOO, SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!! Spring Breaks.

Those Spring Breaks were filled with booze and boobs and beads and bad decisions. 

Those memories make me terrified to ever have a daughter.

Hope your week is going better than mine! And hey, it's Wednesday! Only a few more days till my Spring Break hell is over:)

Insta Friday

Life lately as told from mine and Richard's iPhones.

Went to a wedding with these fine fellows.

Made a bunch of baby food

Can't take him anywhere.

Pint sized Risky Business

You can find him in da pub. Or in our kitchen with vodka.

B.F.F's

Linking up to Life Rearranged

Also, forgot to mention earlier this week that Crystal H. was the winner of the Stoic Design prints giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Happy Friday!!

Follow me on Instagram @StoicTia!

Sushi Salad Recipe

I came across a recipe for a "Sushi Salad" in the Superfood Kitchen cookbook, and was VERY interested in putting it in my mouth. I love sushi, and while I have never tried to roll my own, I can't imagine I would be very good at it. So sushi unrolled is right up my alley. I wasn't crazy about the "ginger dressing" they recomended in the book, and with a quick interwebs search, saw that others had made similiar dishes with a mayonaise based dressing. 

That's kinda what I'm all about.

So I tweaked. And tweaked. And twerked. Just kidding. 

And this is what I finished with.

To make 1 salad you need :

1/4 cup brown rice

1/2 cup water
1/4 cucumber
1/2 avocado
1/2 small carrot 
1/4 - 1/2 nori sheet
1/4 cup sprouts (I used alfalfa sprouts)
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/2-1 teaspoon Wasabi paste 
1/2-1 teaspoon sriracha
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon mayonaise (I used Veganaise)

I guess it's technically more of a sushi bowl than salad, since it doesn't have the greens usually required to deem something a salad. But whatevs. 

Start by combining the rice and water in a small pot. Bring to a simmer, then cover and let cook on low for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, dice cucumber into small cubes. Peel, pit, and slice the avocado. Cut the carrot into thin matchsticks. "Toast" nori sheet, if needed. The nori I use needs to be toasted, so I just used a regular lighter and ran the sheet over the flame until it changed from brown to a bright green color.

Once the rice is cooked and cooled (place in the freezer for a few minutes to sped up the process), put it in the bottom of your bowl. Next stir in the cucumber, carrot, and avocado. 


Then top with nori strips, sprouts, and sesame seeds.

Make the dressing by mixing together the mayonaise, wasabi, sriracha, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Mix until the sugar is disolved and everything is combined. Taste, and add more wasabi or srircha as needed (I like it with some bite!) Drizzle over salad and dig in!.

 Click here for the printable recipe

Four Things

Four recent Etsy favorites

1: Ernest Hemingway Print $19.42 by Standard Designs 2: Wooden Toy Camera $30 by Twig Creative 3: Tribal Skirt $36 by LoNa Design 4: Wear Sequins to Breakfast Pencils/Set of 6 $12 by Amanda Catherine Designs

Happy Friday!

Keeping Brooks fat: Making bulk {organic} baby food

In trying to keep Brooks on our family's clean eating path, I have made all his baby food. At around 6 months he started eating solids, usually simple, watery purees of one fruit or vegetable. He loved broccoli, and sweet potato anything remains his favorite flavor. He is now 9.5 months, so we have moved to more complex flavor combinations with more texture. To make his food, I'll use an afternoon to peel, dice, steam and mix everything. Then I can freeze it for about a months worth of meals. 

My grocery list for this batch included the following:

3/4 cup quinoa

1 cup kale

1 cup spinach

8 carrots

12 oz bag of frozen blueberries

10 oz bag of frozen peas

1/2 lb broccoli

3 medium zucchini

2 medium yellow squash

1 mango

2 pears

3 apples

2 sweet potatoes

3 bananas

Total cost: $24.67

Notes: 

*I purchased all organic produce, and local grown whenever possible.

*If you have no other use for kale, and can only buy it by larger amounts, just use spinach in its place. Or vice versa.

*Babies will seriously eat anything. Can't find a mango? Use a peach. Hate peas? Use asparagus. Brown rice can be substituted for quinoa.

*But DO pay attention to not use any hi-risk foods, such as honey, peanut butter, citrus, corn, raspberries.

 To make and store the baby food, I use the Baby Bullet system. Or just use your regular blender. I like the storage that comes with the Baby Bullet, which has a freezer tray to freeze 6 servings, as well as 6 serving containers. There are lots of other storage options available, and ice cube trays work well too. All the extra purees get stored in BPA free Ziploc bags until I'm ready to use them.

Start by prepping all your ingredients. Here is how each needs to be prepared:

Quinoa: Add quinoa and 1 cup water to small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover, and let cook for about 15 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.

Kale and/or spinach: toss in a large skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until wilted

Carrots, broccoli, zucchini, squash, pears, apples, sweet potatoes: Peel the sweet potatoes, & peel and core the apples and pears. Chop everything into 1-2" pieces. These all need to be steamed or boiled. I don't have a steamer, so I just throw it in a pan with enough water to cover it and let it cook until soft. I did the apples and pears together, and the carrots, zucchini, and squash together. 

Peas: defrost according to package directions.

Mango and bananas: Peel and dice.

Once everything is ready to go, it's time to start creating some interesting mixes. You can adjust flavors to your babies preferences. If he favors sweeter taste, always include a fruit with your veggie mixes. Apple works well to sweeten up any green mixes.

Here are the flavor combinations I did:

Quinoa+Banana+Pear

1/2 cup cooked quinoa, 1/2 banana, 1/2 pear

Sweet Potato+Zucchini+Squash+Quinoa

1/3 sweet potato, 1/3 zucchini, 1/2 squash, 1/2 cup quinoa

Broccoli+Apple+Kale

all broccoli, 1/3 apple, all kale

Blueberry+Quinoa

1/2 blueberries, 1/2 cup quinoa

Carrot+Blueberry

1/2 carrot, 1/2 blueberry

Zucchini+Banana

1/3 zucchini, 1/2 banana

Zucchini+Squash+Pear

1/3 zucchini, 1/2 squash, 1/3 pear

Apple+Carrot

1/3 apple, 1/2 carrot

Spinach+Pea+Mango

all spinach, 1/2 pea, all mango

Sweet Potato+Apple

1/2 sweet potato, 1/3 apple

Quinoa+Pea+Pear+Sweet Potato

1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 pea, 1/3 pear, 1/3 sweet potato

Measurements are by cooked and diced ingredient, so 1/2 pear equals half of my cooked chopped pears, not half of a pear. I hope that makes sense...

I blend everything as is first, then add small amounts of water as necessary until it gets to a good consistency. Depending on your child's age and how good they have gotten at mashing food with their gums, you can have a smooth yogurty consistency, or a mix with a little chunkiness.

Put your mixes in your storage containers, or in Ziploc bags. Lay the bags flat until frozen for easier storage. When I'm ready to use them, I just let them defrost in the fridge, cut off a corner, and squeeze the contents into my baby bullet containers.

And that's how I make a months worth of organic baby food in about an hour, for less than $25

Baby approved.

InstaFriday

Life lately as told from mine and Richard's iPhones.

This Crazy, crazy hair.

LOTS of crafting and orders.

Zee best thing in zee whole world?? Fat sumo babies.

A rare moment of brotherly love. Lincoln was ACTUALLY sharing his toys with Brooks.

Linking up to Life Rearranged

And don't forget to enter the giveaway!! Going through March 17th!

Have a great weekend!

Stoic Design Giveaway!! **CLOSED**

We have been busy busy busy coming up with a new product for our Etsy shop, and I'm excited to share it with you!

We are now offering PRINTS of some of our favorite sheet music designs!

I think the prints will be an awesome alternative for customer who want to spend less, or who are looking for a piece of art they can frame. 

 I'm really loving how they look, and can't wait to get a couple matted and framed for our house.

 So what do you think? Would you like a couple of these for your house? Or to give as a gift for a wedding or engagement?

 Or how about a baby shower?

Well 2 of these could be yours! Just use as many of the ways below to enter, and I will announce 1 winner on March 18th. Several entries can be done daily for more chances to win, so come back as many times as you'd like!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: Items were provided by the Stoic Design Shop. I was not paid for this giveaway. Last day to enter the giveaway is March 17th, 2013. 11:59 CST.  One winner will have 72 hours to get back to me after I email them. After that, I will contact someone else to be the winner. Good luck to you! This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only (unless you would like to cover the cost of shipping internationally).

Let's get Seussical

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss's birthday, so Lincoln's preschool celebrated Seuss Day today. The kids were allowed to wear costumes, and since we already had a Cat in the Hat hat in our dress up collection, we went with that. Of course, I forgot all about it until Thursday night, so had to pull the costume together with things we had on hand. He had black sweatpants and sweatshirt, and with a white t-shirt underneath he started to look like the cat. But we needed that big red bow.

Lucky for him, I'm a crafty momma, and had all the supplies to make him one.

A google search came up with zip on how to make a Cat in the Hat style bow, so I had to figure it out on my own, and thought I'd share in case anyone else was searching! 

And sorry for the crap pictures. It was late. And I had been drinking.

Cat in the Hat Bow Tie

You'll need red fleece or felt. I used felt because I had some leftover from another project, but I think felt would work just as well, except it might not be as fluffy. You'll also need some skinny elastic and your hot glue gun. Start by cutting a 13x10" rectangle from the fabric, as well as a wonky piece that is 10" long. This piece looks like a turkey wattle, and there is no template, just start cutting a slender piece of material, 1" wide, and at the end, make it wonky.

You understand.

Next, fold you rectangle so the 2 shorter edges are just overlapping. Flip it over, and pinch the fabric in the center. Add a dot of hot glue to either side of the fold, then pull the sides into form an accordion fold.

Hold for 10-20 seconds to let the glue dry. Now take your wonky strip, and put the non-wonky edge on the underside of your bow. Wrap it around, and use a dab of hot glue to secure in place. 

Cut your elastic to a size that fits your child's head, adding a a few inches so it can be knotted. Pull the elastic through the space under the wrapped piece. Then I just knotted the ends of the elastic, then hid the knot under the wrapped piece. 

And there you have it: