Crepes by Clarvin

So I'm sitting here in a quiet house with a nice glass of wine and wanting so badly to work on some long-ish blog posts that have been in my head for awhile, but I know that I won't last much longer and that I'll never get anything posted unless I keep it simple. Somehow these days fly by so fast but they go so slow. They go slowly when the baby is screaming, Clark is having a meltdown over something trivial like orange juice or the way Cal looked at him, and Calvin is screaming for help on the toilet. Those moments take forever. But somehow it all comes to an end in a messy whirlwind and the house is quiet except for the dishwasher and the crickets outside.

So, to make things less complicated I'll just write about today. We read a delightful little library book yesterday called Crepes by Suzette by Monica Wellington. It's an impressive piece of art, actually. The backgrounds for the pages are photo collages of Paris, with real people inserted in places like windows, but the main characters are all drawn in the foreground. At the end of the book there's a crepes recipe so this morning Clarvin and I made crepes. (Clarvin is the name that our friend Margo uses for the twins in order to save time, space, and effort.) We used lemon with powdered sugar and strawberries as filling and they were delicious. I love books that include activity ideas. I highly recommend the book and the recipe.

Here are some pictures from that, as well as some other pictures from the past couple weeks just for kicks.

Master Theodore and I attended Missy's garden tea party to celebrate the
200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. Delightful.

Teddy keeps smiling

Hockey started!

The ones down on the ice in the corner? Those are mine.

Little sweaty after, but very enthused, as is volunteer coach, Dad

Clark played third base with Dad at cousin's 10 year old birthday party!

Calvin on deck

The 10 year-olds modified the pitching for the 4 year-olds

Teddy bundled up

Teddy slept through the night last night!

Bread Experiment Update

Almost two months ago I read a bread label. There were a staggering amount of ingredients, and many of them I could not pronounce. And that was organic whole wheat bread! Inspired by In Defense of Food and reading a blog post from Fat Duck Farm about bread baking, I decided to try to bake bread and work toward not having to buy it.

My first attempt was horrible, my second attempt looked a little like bread, but that's where the similarities ended, and my third attempt was downright edible. We were still buying bread at the store. It's been almost two months since I started and as of last week we have phased out all store bread. The real challenge is yet to come as I have not yet attempted to make a grilled cheese sandwich for the boys. I don't know how I could cut the slices thinly enough so they could get their little mouths around both pieces of bread. I'll let you know when I'm brave enough for that.

I tried yet another recipe today. It's a honey whole wheat bread with a little molasses in it and it came out delicious. I have more recipes I'm excited to try. I make two loaves and keep them in plastic bags in the fridge. Since they have no preservatives they don't last long, as I found out from making a batch of four loaves to start out with.

Today's loaves

Lentils, Zucchini, and Spinach, Oh My!

Something has been revolutionizing my kitchen life lately. It started a week ago when I found a cookbook in the library. It’s called The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue and it’s all about sneaking nutrition into your kids’ meals through pureed veggies and fruit, and on top of that, it has unusual recipes for kids who are bored with regular sandwiches and other run-of-the-mill food presentations. 

Monkey Pancake batter

Sweet potatoes and carrots

I’ve been hunting and gathering vegetables and fruits in order to make the purees and then be able to try the recipes.

The other day I mixed up tuna salad with some sour cream as well as mayo, and added a pureed mix of sweet potatoes and carrots. Scrumptious! The boys ate it just as well as they eat regular tuna salad on crackers. They’ve had it several times since then and so have I.

This morning I made Monkey Pancakes. Here’s what’s in them: whole wheat and white flours, wheat germ, pureed carrots and sweet potatoes, bananas, and some baking powder, salt, egg, and milk. 

Cal gobbles Monkey Pancakes

Sounds gross, right? But they were delicious! Calvin ate most of the batch, and I’m not exaggerating. Brian liked them but he wasn’t hungry when I was done with the pancakes and so he only got Clark’s leftovers. Cal ate a bunch, got down to play, and came back to eat more. I felt a little like what a spy might feel like after intercepting a top secret plan from the Russians. Or something. They had no idea they were eating vegetables that they typically refuse to eat on their own.

On top of the colorful veggie and fruit purees there is a lentil puree, a nut puree, a flour blend, and a better breading blend. Let the food processor begin!

I don’t want to get out of the habit of always offering them veggies and fruit in their natural forms, but for now I am slipping them in on the sly and I feel pretty good about it. It’s basically like dropping a couple tablespoons of fresh, preservative-free baby food into every meal you make. The purees of every color blend in naturally to foods and provide a spectrum of important nutrition.

cauliflower and zucchini puree 

I encourage any parent to use this book. Eating smashed lentils and blending your spinach with blueberries has never felt better.