I've developed a new fondness for naan. Well it's not completely new. We found a naan bread recipe last year, that calls for garlic of course, and used it to make pizza doughs. We would make up the dough, and roll them into balls that would wind up making a pizza about 8inches or so across, and froze them. When we wanted pizza I just had to remember to take them out in the afternoon and let them thaw. Then roll them out. This way Lee and I could make our own customized pizza, and I can make a simple one for the kids.
We were at friends a while back and we had some hamburgers. She had run out of buns accidentally but found some flatbread style buns she had bought at the store in her freezer. They made the best hamburger buns ever! They are much stronger than regular buns, as they don't fall apart after soaking in the condiments. You don't really need to toast them. And they're quite tasty!
The whole thing tasted new and different.
So now I'm using that naan recipe above to make flat bread once a week or so. Turns out my oldest loves it.
She doesn't like sandwiches really, as she prefers her ingredients to be separate and not touch each other. (She will eat peanut butter and grill cheese - but you can't take peanuts to school anymore). So I usually slice up a half of a wrap and put that, ham slices, and cheese slices into a container for her lunch. She can then roll up little sandwiches on her own.
But she likes the naan bread, so now I can cut them into little wedges and put them in too, then she makes her own little sandwiches. (I actually don't add garlic for her - will have to make 2 batches next week, one for us, one for them)
So this works out great. I can use them for hamburgers, or my own breakfast sandwiches, mini pizzas and kids lunches! Woooo
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I work on the computer, and we opened our own computer business, which is doing very very well considering we're still in our first year. So if this keeps going, and I can go into the office more to help, then hopefully we can pay off our debt and own a house... that is the extend of my dream right now. A house, on a large property with lots of trees for privacy. And possibly a hunk of land up north where it's sparsely populated so that we can go up for summer vacations, or Lee can go hunt, or what have you.
:D
My youngest has turned a corner. She still argues and says No a lot, but for whatever reason (maybe shes no longer constipated?) she has been in a much better mood the past 2 days.
I took her to preschool and she didn't really argue, took her jacket off and ran in to play with toys yelling "Come on Mommy". I talked to the ladies there a minute, and she was still playing with the toy cars, not even looking for me, so I snuck out.
It's put me in a MUCH better mood today.
I feel energized, proactive, and I might even clean and do laundry today.
I turned on the furnace for the first time this morning. It's getting cold overnight, but still very warm during the day.
I turned it on so I could clean out the system. You know that burnt dusty smell every fall when you first turn it on. All the windows are open and the fans are on, and I'm shivering away in the office.
But at least it'll be ready for when we do want to use it and wont stink up the house.
I'm debating between canning some of the garden veggies, and blending them up with garlic and spices and freezing them in ice cube trays.
I do that with chicken broth. Cause then you can retrieve a single cube (or two) and toss them into recipes or just sit them in a metal bowl and put them in a little hot water in the sink to melt them. It helps them to keep longer too.
I have a baggie of frozen beet mush cubes in the freezer. I toss a couple cubes into spaghetti sauce and soups. Lots of vitamins that way. You can also toss them into mashed potatoes and make them a bright pink!! heh.
Anyway, off to attempt to be domestic today.
No matter what kind of day I am having, there is an LOL cat to describe it perfectly!!!
Which may be why I love them so much. I know it's silly, maybe childish. But the little goofy photos with bad spelling make my day sometimes!
Today it's 'Meh' cat.
The youngest is still in her NO phase. She handled preschool much better today. She still cried when I tried to go but the teachers said that she was fine after a few minutes then did great the rest of the time. She didn't want to leave when I went to get her, and even behaved when we took coffee to Lee's office, and hit the dollar store for ice cube trays.
When we got home... well, nothing was going to make her happy. She wanted to play this game on the Treehouse TV Web site. (Lots of great games for young kids) So i put it on, then she didn't want to play it, but wanted to watch the cartoon that it's based on, which I don't have... and well, it went downhill from there.
She finally passed out on the couch.
I think I know why this one is having issues with preschool. It's because I didn't take her out as much, to a play group or other activities as I did my oldest. Oh well.
I do remember my oldest going through a phase where nothing was how she wanted. She refused to eat dinner for weeks and I finally have to give her something afraid she will get sick from not eating (usually fruit to make sure she got vitamins). Most of the time, spending 3 days in her room was enough to get her on track again. She still has bouts of craziness.
For instance, if she gets some sort of special treat, not necessarily food, but some fun event that maybe she never did before, then she refuses to listen to me for days. If I decide that the kids have been good, and decide to get some fast food for lunch (which we dont do often), then she thinks she can have ANY food she wants any time she wants, and I don't get to refuse her.
Which usually makes me regret doing anything nice for her some days, because she turns into Super-Brat afterwards.
Once I got her a couple timbits in the morning, then we went grocery shopping, and she couldn't understand why she couldn't have EVERY junk item she saw. Usually she asks, then when I say 'No', she is fine and moves on. But because she got her timbit, then anything goes.
"This is why Mommy drinks."
Such is the life of a parent however.
The oldest is MUCH better. She is loving grade 1, and listens much more now.
1 Down, 1 To go.
:)
Vent day is over.
Having one child in school for 6 hours has been rather surreal. When she was in kindergarden we walked her up to school, came home, I got 2 hours to do stuff, before heading back out to pick her up... Now I have several hours of time.
My youngest is going through the terrible 3's. There is no such thing as terrible 2s. Both ours were much better behaved through the 2s than the 3s. Then when they hit 4s they try to reason their way out of things more, but usually easier to handle.
She was ok the first few days that her sister was at school. I tried to take her out for short grocery shopping trips but even that didn't seem to entertain her. I also think she wasn't feeling well so she laid on the couch a lot, and her temperature was up a little. Now she is saying NO to everything and freaking out every morning over nothing, to the point I swear she's gonna burst a blood vessel in her brain.
This morning, we got 50 feet from the house and she wouldn't stop blubbering so I told my oldest to go ahead and walk to school by herself. That was hard for me to do. However, the back way involves no street crossing and is very fast. Just down a half block, through an empty lot, and in the back gate of the school yard. She looked uncertain at first, but then seemed rather excited that I would let her do that.
The school really is VERY close to us. And I thought next year I would let her walk, but I just didn't feel like dragging, then carrying a simpering mess with me the whole way.
Tomorrow the youngest starts preschool, which she seemed to enjoy at the open house, where we got to visit with the teachers. I am hoping that after a few times at preschool she will settle and be more excited to go out in the mornings. I think she might be bored with me at home, even though I am trying to give her some activities to do. Painting, etc. Might have to take her to a park if I have the car (There is a nice one downtown) more often.
Sigh...
I need to spike my coffee today I think. ;)
Well, today is the first day of school up here in the frozen northern wasteland called Canada. My oldest is starting grade 1 today (half day today). Which means I get 6 hours of time almost to myself for the first time in 5.5 years! Woooooo.
Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. I don't really want to be one of those parents on my facebook page who is constantly going on about every moment they get away from their children. I'm excited for my daughter, because I know she enjoys school (so far). And I get a little more uninterrupted time for work related stuff! Working from home is not easy with small children.
The other one will be starting preschool this fall, mon-wed-fri mornings for 2 hours. This week is just an open house / orientation meet and greet, and next week she has her gradual entry, then the week after that she starts her preschool officially. So that will then become 3 days a week with 2 whole hours to MYSELF!!! What will I do? Probably work... preferably nap! lol
Garden is going gangbusters out there. Tomatoes are ripening daily. And the deer like the taste of squash flowers... buggers. I dont think I am going to get a single pumpkin this year. I had like a half dozen flowers going ... before the deer ATE THEM ALL.
You can see the size of the zucchini I just pulled out of our garden. We've always managed to get nice ones. Other plants like pumpkin or potatoes are hit and miss every year, but these always do well. The hard part is finding enough recipes to use it in. I bake a lot of zucchini bread in the early fall.
And here is just what I have in the way of tomatoes in the fridge. There are still tons out in the garden. And this is even after I used a bunch in last night's dinner! Time to make soup today I think.
:D
This fall I am planning on canning as well. Can't let all this go to waste. We've been giving some away but still... the bulk of the tomatoes will probably ripen at once.
I need more coffee....
all for today!
Well, after 2 whole months I finally got some work from the office I hate working for. I am suppose to help with some web page stuff, but it looks like they dont want to give me access to the source, just have me mock up some 'widget' (they love that word to describe everything) and show it doing this nice fade to view effect, and give them that. I wont be pulling any information from a db or anything. I guess someone else will incorporate it.
I am not sure if I should be insulted by that. It's possible they are testing me, to see if I really know this code I will have to use. But then again, why should I care? I dont even want to work for them. I just really need the money for the short term.
Gaaah
The tomatoes are ripening faster and faster, and now I have to come up with tomato recipes to use them up. I don't think we'll be able to eat them all, and I'll definitely can a lot of it for the winter.
The upside down tomatoes just didn't do as good. Either we didn't give them enough time upright to grow, or the buckets are too constraining for the roots... But they are growing some, and we can get some cherry tomatoes off them. Not enough unfortunately. I probably won't do that again next year.
I had planted some peas in buckets as well. Not a lot in each. My plan was to plant them every 2 weeks. Well they grew nicely, then just kind a piddled out and died. I didn't get to harvest any off them unfortunately. Shame. My oldest LOVES those.
But I did make an awesome 'Garden Veggie Pizza' the other night:
Quite tasty!! I might put the tomato a little closer next time so I can fit just a little more in, and use more basil leaves. But this is the first year I planet basil so it's not very big yet. The Mint on the other hand... is HUGE. I am going to have to harvest that and dry it soon so it doesn't go all to waste.
I manage to pull some veggies out of the garden each day. I have lots of onions, and they aren't too huge, but they are packed with flavor. The squash is starting to get big, and we have a couple melon plants in there this year that are producing nicely. The zucchini is massive again... always manages to grow well. I will get a picture of one next to something, so you can see the size.
I also tried to do a beet mash... but it kind of came out more like baby food. Tasty however, blended with sour cream and garlic and some seasoning. I froze it into cubes and will use it to mix with other things.
I might mix it with mash potatoes, make bright pink potatoes. heh
It's definitely helped cut the food bill however. Last night I made a baked pasta... some chicken, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic and cheddar, mixed with some bow tie pasta and baked with a small rue with chicken broth... OMG! I had put lemon juice in with the chicken while it cooked and I think that made a big difference. Lee would like me to make it tonight again... I think I will, considering I was ready to lick my bowl last night. heh
All for now.
Ta-ta
