Pumpkin Muffins (wheat free)

I joined Groundswell Farm's Winter CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year. I get to pick up veggies once a week, still, in Nov. and Dec.! Still being able to eat the fresh greens from their green house is amazing but I was less sure I could get through all the squash. Well, turns out it's our favorite thing about the Winter CSA. Though we don't enjoy it whole or savory much, we make it into baked goods for breakfast. Pumpkin is 30 calories per cup, so you can have a hearty muffin or pancake each morning without concern. On a gluten free diet, I often use ground Flax Seed to keep things held together since rice flour often crumbles after baked. However, it's a great thing to add in general because of it's Omega 3's. Enjoy!

*Note: I bake squash whole (punctured with fork) on a baking sheet, 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes and then it's easy to scoop out seeds, peel off skin and throw in processor with some water to puree to use or freeze in 15 oz baggies.

Texas Caviar

I haven't written on this blog in three years. I remember the day that someone said, "Who blogs? Isn't that so narcissistic?" I was waning in my posts anyhow, finding it hard to squeeze in the time to sit down at a computer. While that part of my full life hasn't changed, one change is that I'm going to choose to blog or not to blog because of my own reasons. I like to write and I also have been using Pinterest lately to store recipes. It's stream-lined things to bring my iPad into our kitchen and quickly start from there verses search for recipes in my books. I'd like to transfer some of my recipes in my recipe books onto Pinterest, but I have to have a link in order to do that. Hence, some of my posts will include food.

Texas Caviar is an easy, versatile, healthy recipe that I tried to replicate after a friend shared her's. Mine was too sweet, so she shared her recipe that I will try out soon enough! I served mine over Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free cornbread (which is amazing) and think it may go well with fried eggs, too, if you want to use it as a main course verses chip dip. 

Texas Caviar- Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 can drained and rinsed beans (mixture--black, pinto, black-eyed peas, garbanzo, etc.)
1 can corn, drained
2 red/green/yellow peppers chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 cup celery, diced
2 finely chopped jalepenos (no seeds)

Sauce:
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 TBL water
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar

Mix salad ingredients.

Bring sauce to boil, pour over mixture, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.  Drain or serve as is.   Enjoy!

If I reach out and touch her, will Keith appear?

Last week, I was on the beach doing yoga (I know, I love Michigan in the summer). The teacher stretched me well beyond what I do myself while watching a video. She showed me new poses while kicking my butt into shape and I felt great afterward. She was just what I was looking for and she does class on the beach at 8pm! Wow. The sun goes down, the sky is clear, the waves keep your breathing in rhythm. It's absolutely awesome. After class, I was asking her how she got started. She spent a lot of time teaching herself how to teach yoga (to the locals) while in the Peace Corps and then came back to the states and got certified. Her Peace Corps service was served in Macedonia and she's my age so I asked if she knows my friend Keith Thompson and his wife. Yes, why yes she does. Of course she knows the same guy....the same guy I also met across the world while living in a hut in the rain forest of Belize. Crazy. As my sister said, I was meant to meet each of them. Crazy that I did.

I won

The other day, Jilliann and I were shopping for a gift at Moynihan's while Miles napped in the Ergo. She loves to go shopping with me and wanted to wear a skirt that day and woke up that morning at 8am asking to paint her nails. So, she went out on the deck on that wonderfully warm day and painted her toenails all by herself while I made breakfast. My girly girl must have brought me good luck. A shop employee approached us with a deck of cards spread out in her hands. She asked us to choose one and said if we got a Jack or Joker we would win a prize. I pulled out a Jack of Hearts and we won a beautiful card painted and signed by the owner of the store. I love winning......partly because I feel I can will my winning to occur since I wish and hope it occurs so very hard.

Thurs. morning bliss....I mean Spanish

I miss Thursday mornings. Jilliann had Spanish class for one hour each Thursday during Miles' nap time. A couple times, I tried to race back home to put him down only to wake him early for pick up. Then, I realized I could take this time to myself. Yes, prisoner to the car with Miles sleeping soundly behind me, but it was winter time. The windows were up for a quiet, peaceful ride for sleeping. I would drop Jilliann off and Miles was asleep soon after. After picking up some coffee and a vegan, wheat free cookie (love you Lemonjellos) I went to watch the birds. The Seagulls would sit on the ice getting pummeled by arctic blasts and still stand on one foot. They'd dance in the face of frigid wind and inches of solid ice under their exposed feet. These are the same birds who eat our chips on the beach in August. I'm not sure why they stay. They are a hearty bird and I would write in my journal and soak up alone time (relatively speaking). The ice is gone, but I'd sure like to still watch the birds. Time to just be. Time to hear silence.
But, right now I hear crying coming from upstairs and I will relish this time when I can still go fetch a baby and comfort him....and when I can still have Jilliann with me all day long and not at school with a teacher half the day. I will miss my kids then.

ArtPrize is awesome

ArtPrize is an event in Grand Rapids for two weeks and it is absolutely amazing! It's a contest with 12,000 artists displaying their art; the public votes and first place gets $250,000. Not just any public, though, our community. You must be present to register to vote. Art fills the city- it's on the outside of buildings, inside restaurants, churches and hotels, it's in galleries, in the actual river and the bridge over top of it. Seeing art everywhere is so fun and the pieces are very well done. Talent is just spilling over this three mile radius of a competition. I use that word, but it doesn't seem like a competition at all. It seems like a celebration with people walking around, happily looking around and discussing what's going on. There's positive energy in the air and excitement surrounding this event. One of my favorite pieces is Nessie in the Grand River (the Lockness Monster) and it turns out my friend was a part of creating it. He said if they win first prize, the proceeds will go towards cancer research at the Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids. Sharing that wealth for the greater good is such an admirable way of continuing that positive energy.
What a wonderful event to be a part of, for little ol' Grand Rapids in Western Michigan to host. This could easily be something put on in New York City, but here we have it in our own place. It's here and it's being coordinated very efficiently and bringing a lot of money to our community. Thousands of people are going to attend this event and eat at our restaurants, pay for parking and buy art. So much money has gone into this event and you can see that with signs and tee-shirts everywhere and new Macs lined up at registration (yeah, I can tell that keypad is just out of the box.). Making the actual art is also boosting our weak economy; Nessie may have cost $35-37,000 to create!
Art galleries and children don't always go together well. So, I haven't spent a lot of time around art recently and this was a perfect opportunity to do that with the whole family. We did have a melt down and need to leave one particular place, but no one minded that you had your stroller. Kid sounds during the dance performance was cute. Things were outside and all over and very accessible. You could take in so much art at once and it was like a party in some places with a DJ spinning and a live performance of melting glass.
I've voted several times already and I want to go back all week! I'd love to see it all and it will be cool to see who wins. With all that art, I don't know how anyone chooses a favorite- just one. Speaking of winning the big prize.....I won an Ergo Baby Carrier! I've loved the Ergo and Jilliann practically lived in it. Miles also loves it and since I got one three years ago, several improvements have been made. So, I put my tickets towards that prize in the La Leche League raffle in celebration of World Breastfeeding Day and won it! It's organic and green and I'm so thankful to have it. Thanks to Ergo for donating that! I'm a huge fan.

My new thing

My new thing is: early to bed, early to rise. I'm trying this out and it seems to be working. The goal is to get control of my life. I feel out of control when I wake up with the kids, get breakfast, get going out the door and then return home where there are so many things to do . My mind feels chaotic and my home does, too at times with piles of to-dos. When Jilliann stopped taking naps, I lost the moments of time to myself during a day. I'm slowing going crazy without that. In the mornings, I try to get some things done but most importantly I try to think out my goals and plans for the day and week and month. It helps ground me. Sometimes I spend time on myself with yoga or coffee with a good book. This helps calm me.
I like it and apparently Rupert the cat likes it since he can bother me for love without interruption. Jilliann, however is not a fan of waking up without me there. The other day, she woke up and yelled out a grunting noise of protest. I also heard some bumping and went upstairs to see her on the ground, pushing herself across the bamboo floor with a grunt accompanying each push. I do miss her waking up, calling my name and then hearing those little pads of her feet thumping over to my bedside where I sleepily give her a kiss. I also miss sleeping in, but I've got to do this to get my mind right though and she'll thank me, too.
A benefit of being up with Jason is seeing him off in the morning and being able to give him something for breakfast. I'm not sure he views it this way (he's a big-breakfast or no-breakfast type of guy and a big breakfast takes too much time for a 7:20 departure), but I do love getting somthing in his belly before his long, demanding day.
It's very hard to go to sleep, though when I get sweet alone time with Miles before bed time. I wake him to feed him and right now, he's laying across my lap lazily playing with my bracelet. He's so sweet and content and I can tell he loves his sister but I can also tell he likes to be left along for once. ;). I guess I don't "leave him alone" much either, but I do stay out of his face much more than she does.
Well, in sticking with my new thing....Good night!