Friday, August 24, 2012

Tomato Chips

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These are so easy to make and so good and simple. I made nine dehydrator sheets worth and am storing them in this air-tight container...

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Baby Hippo eats bowl-fulls every day...

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Here's how... Simply slice tomatoes in about 1/8-inch slices, then drizzle with a small amount of olive oil and shake on some garlic salt, then gently stir to mix. Dehydrate in a food dehydrator for 24 to 48 hours, depending on the humidity in your area, until they are dry and firm. They will still be a little bendy. Enjoy!!


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Whole Grain Flax Seed Waffles

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So I've finally figured out the secret to preventing waffles from getting soggy while you're waiting for the batch to finish cooking. What I did tonight was heat my oven to 170 degrees, then, as each waffle was finished, I placed it inside the oven directly on the rack. When I was finally finished with all 9 waffles, they were crisp and warm and delicious. Here's a new hearty recipe I tried this evening. I found the original at allrecipes.com HERE, but I made a few adaptations to call it my own. Hope you enjoy! Oh, and HERE'S the nutrition data, minus the flax seed meal, as the data wasn't available.




Ingredients
2eggs, beaten
cups milk
¼cup canola oil
¾cup grated zucchini
1teaspoon vanilla extract
1cup whole wheat pastry flour
½cup flax seed meal
¼cup oatmeal
¼cup all-purpose flour
4teaspoons baking powder
1tablespoon sugar
¼teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Blend zucchini in blender until smooth.
2. In a bowl, combine all wet ingredients.
3. Whisk in dry ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour about ¾ cup batter onto waffle iron and cook until browned.


Saturday, August 18, 2012

High-Protein Blender Pancakes, just for those worried about our football player...

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Contrary to popular belief, I do cook well-balanced meals for my family on a daily basis, sometimes even making three meals a day from scratch.

As you may remember, I live in a small Mexican farm town, and some of the town's people earn a living through cattle ranching. Thus, my mostly vegetarian lifestyle sometimes causes, shall we say, a bit of a stir in our community.

Now, just to clear things up, let's get up to speed on my current beliefs about eating meat. I began my journey away from meat three years ago when I read Diet for a New America By Robbins, John (Google Affiliate Ad). I soon went from eating meat several times a week to a vegan lifestyle and remained a vegan for about 7 months, until I became pregnant with Baby Hippo, at which time I began to crave McDonald's hamburgers. During my second trimester, however, my body began to crave vegetarian forms of protein, such as beans and peanut butter, and I jumped back on the vegetarian band wagon, but began including milk, eggs and cheese in my diet.

Over the past two years, I have altered my lifestyle to include meat when eating at church functions or in other people's homes, or even in restaurants, but I still don't buy meat from the grocery store, or cook it at home. My policy with the kids is that if they want to eat a meat meal, they need to ask their father to pick some up from the grocery store, and they can cook it themselves.

Now, living in a small town, word about what I eat and what I feed my family gets around pretty quick. I think we must all be a little bit bored to be so concerned about each others diets, and in the town gossip train, a few of the townspeople's perception of my family's eating habits have become a bit skewed. So let's set the record straight, shall we? :) :) :)

Asking my kids to cook their own meat, should they have a great desire to eat meat, does not equal I don't cook my kids meals. A few in town have said what a shame it is that my kids have to cook their own meals and that I won't lift a finger to help them. Some in town even go as far as drilling my kids as to what they ate for their last meal. When one dear lady asked the twins what they ate for breakfast one morning, while they were playing at a friend's house, they replied, "We like jump tam-po-line." She didn't get very far in her investigation.

Others will question my football player son, who, everyone knows, HAS to have TONS of protein. When he answers that he had a salad for dinner, knowing looks of pity cross their faces, and invitations to come to their homes if he wants a good steak abound. What the 16-year-old boy leaves out is that it was a chef salad, with hard-boiled eggs, two different kinds of cheeses, 8 different vegetarian toppings to add, some of them sauteed and seasoned, and nuts and seeds to sprinkle on. This dinner was so filling, I could only eat half a salad.

What some townspeople don't realize is that I spend hours poring over recipes and ingredient internet sites and labels to make sure my football player son gets the protein he needs. I create recipes and enter them into nutritiondata.com to make sure his protein has a high amino acid score. I go over with him what he is eating at each meal and how much protein he is ingesting. We discuss the harmful effects of Tostitos and soda and I ground him if he doesn't eat his vegetables.

Now I'm not gonna lie. The 16-year-old boy is not always agreeable to this way of eating, but he happens to be the fastest runner on the team (or so he tells me), and through hard-work and training has risen to the position of first-string receiver. He has a perfect physique; lean and muscular, with cut biceps, pecs and abs. He certainly doesn't look like someone who's starving because his mother never cooks for him. The proof is the pudding, I say.

And now, so some of the townspeople will stop worrying, HERE is a link to the nutrition data of a recipe I feed the kids most mornings before school. It's a recipe I created to add protein to my son's diet, as the addition of a small amount of beans in his pancakes adds 8 grams of protein per serving. Sometimes I even get crazy and add things like zucchini, bananas or beets! I like to layer the dry ingredients in a few jars, like so.....


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.... to make breakfast time easier and quicker, plus they look really pretty on my kitchen sink window sill....

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Hope your family likes this as much as we do. :)

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P.S. I just had to share with you a photo of a raw vegan meal I made recently; Fresh-Squeezed Cranberry Orange Juice, Pineapple Cucumber Gazpacho, Beet Ravioli, a side salad, and Raw Vegan Key Lime Pie!

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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Twins and Prearranged Winning

Have I mentioned how outstandingly amazing it is to have twins? Well it is. Their relationship with each other is so different from those of the other kids. Case in point...

I like to have the twins burn off some energy right before I make a meal by having them run races. Twin A is the faster one, and if left to his own devices, he would always win the race. But this is what happens... Twin A will win the first race using his own skill, then Twin B will turn to him and say, "Otay, now it my toe-n win?" Twin A, without a moment's hesitation, will say, "Otay, now it yo toe-n win, and den it my toe-n win adin, otay?"

So as their second race begins, Twin A will run serpentine in order to give Twin B the opportunity to win. Then, for the third race, as agreed upon, Twin A will use his skill to achieve victory. Here's how it goes...

Twin A, crossing the finish line after a typical first face...

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Twin B, heading toward the finish line, making sure he gets his turn to win, even though Twin A had planned on abiding by the prearranged plans...

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Race 3, Twin A's victory face...

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Things can get a little dicey with then 6-year-old boy gets in on the mix, though, because he didn't get the memo about the prearranged winning...

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 Things improve once he learns the ropes, and allows Twin B to triumph...

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 Since they were born, they've had the same outlook on life as is expressed in the following photos...

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 And poor Baby Hippo. No one has the patience to let him win...

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 And sometimes.... it's just a lot more fun to race by yourself...

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Now let's go watch some Olympics. Thanks for listening


So many modes of transportation by which visitors arrive at my house...

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Monday, August 6, 2012

One Random Hour in My Life

These photos were all taken within the time frame of about an hour this afternoon. I used different editing techniques with each photo, so they may all have a different feel. Thanks for listening!

Green chile, waiting to be bottled....

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The 2-year-old boy, having fallen off the couch, onto the protective pillows, then having rolled onto the rug. None of this woke him up.

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The 2-year-old's bedroom, featuring a quilt made by my amazing sister and brother-in-law....

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Church clothes waiting to be ironed....

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Laundry drying....

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A random watermelon seed someone spit by the court, having grown into a watermelon patch...

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The 17-year-old girl, having just finished her chores, off to be with boys.....

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What you see when you walk into my front door....

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Chile, almost finished being bottled...

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Twin A, having fallen asleep downstairs....

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Twin B, having fallen asleep downstairs....

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The 6-year-old boy, having fallen asleep downstairs....

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Chick pea chocolate chip cookies, dehydrating...

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Kale John thoughtfully planted for me, about to be juiced....

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Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Ten of Us Travel to California

Here are my favorite pics from the trip. If you'd like to see more edits, go HERE to my photobucket album. I'd love to know which is your favorite! ;)

 Grandma and Twin B, having fun in Santa Cruz....

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The twins in Capitola, CA. Yes, they love wearing their beanies everywhere, but it gets cold there, too....

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 The mountain bikes Aunt Robyn gathered for unlimited fun for the kids...

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 A beautiful girl at an outdoor hamburger stand in downtown Santa Cruz...

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The 6-year-old boy, walking the dog we were dog-sitting, after catching some waves...

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 Twin A in Capitola...

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 The twins in Capitola...

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The 6-year-old boy, expressing the epitome of boyhood in Santa Cruz...

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 The 17- and 16-year-old, catching the same wave in Santa Cruz...

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The 16-year-old boy and a friend getting mentally geared up for surfing...

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The 2-year-old boy in a kite store on Pier 39 in San Francisco...

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Priests on The Golden Gate Bridge...

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 Some of the kids on The Golden Gate Bridge...

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 The coolest harp player I've ever seen...

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 Thanks for looking! ;)