Father's Day

We decided to celebrate Father's Day on Saturday this year. Ryan and I are trying hard to eat light and exercise 5-6 times a week but allow one day to eat "normal", usually on Saturdays and since Ryan's heart was set on sushi for his "splurge", we decided to bump all the Father's Day fun to this day. Bailey wanted to make breakfast for daddy so I helped her get started. She got a wonderful "Nancy Drew Cookbook" for her birthday from Uncle Nathan and Aunt Joe and has really enjoyed trying out the new recipes. For her and Collin it would be French Toast with Bananas and Maple Syrup and for Daddy and I she was making .....It's a great cookbook for kids to learn to cook. Nearly each recipe is connected to one of the classic Nancy Drew books or one of the characters. Instructions are easy to follow and not too complex, perfect for my budding chef!We sat down to enjoy the wonderful breakfast Bailey made (with a little help from Mom), and she was feeling very proud of herself. After breakfast Ryan opened his homemade cards and gifts from the kids. He was very excited to open a Blu-ray set of the original 6 Star Trek movies and an "official" vintage style tricorder; for you non trekkies out there, it's the gadget that Spock and Dr. McCoy would use to evaluate things. Ryan was a very happy sci-fi trekkie geek dad as we sat down to watch the 1st movie together. As we were watching Ryan realized that he'd gone to see the movie nearly 30 years ago to the month when it first came out. His sister Debbie took him to the movie, he would have been about 10 years old...not much younger than Bailey. It was funny that our kids were almost exactly the ages today that Ryan and I were when the movie first came out. After the movie we headed for our favorite spot for lunch; Sushi at Kabuki! We love everything at Kabuki, the chefs, the help and of course...the FOOD! We stuffed ourselves on edamame, miso soup, philly roll, jalapeno bombs, seared spicy albacore, and of course my favorite, the lobster roll! Bailey enjoyed the katsu chicken and Collin polished off a California roll. Yummy sushi goodness!
Being stuffed from lunch we headed home to lounge and play in the pool. We had the tile replaced almost a week ago and although we were very upset at having to do this so early in the life of our pool, we're very happy with the results. It was a wonderful way to welcome in the first day of summer and celebrate what a wonderful dad Ryan is! Happy Father's Day!

Fresh Veggie Burritos

Our garden is doing very well so far this summer, producing LOTS of cherry tomatoes, salad tomatoes, green peppers, basil, rosemary, oregano and even a few very tiny strawberries. We usually have no trouble devouring the fresh goodies out of the garden. One family favorite it a variation of a Bruschetta without the bread. We simply cut cherry tomatoes in half, add a cheese stick or two, cut into small discs, add some fresh basil leaves finely chopped and toss with just a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper....yummy goodness!

Another favorite recipe we enjoy is for a Veggie Burrito; it's delicious but also great because it is low calorie, low fat and high fiber, and super easy to make! I usually try to find the Mission brand tortillas that are the "carb smart", as long as they are still soft in the package they'll work great (80 cal each).
Recipe for 1 Veggie Burrito (just double, triple or whatever you need for your family)
1 tortilla
1/3 cup sauted ground soy crumbles (don't panic here, they really do taste wonderful in this dish)
1 oz. shredded Veggie Cheese (okay I cheat here a little and usually use regular cheddar)
3 TBSP Salsa (fruity does not work, stick to traditional red or green)
1/2 cup peppers (red, green or yellow, your choice)
1/2 cup onions (I like red best)
1/4 c. Rosarita Vegetarian Refried Beans
Shredded lettuce

Begin with your peppers and onions, they can be sliced or chopped which ever you prefer. Saute for a few minutes with just enough olive oil to keep them from sticking, a tablespoon or so should do it. Once the veggies are beginning to soften add the soy crumbles and continue cooking until everything is hot. While the veggies and crumbles are cooking, heat the refried beans and warm up your tortillas. Prepare the burrito with the beans first, then the cheese, top with the veggies and crumbles mixture and finally add the lettuce and salsa. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Science Rocks

My kids are convinced I'm the meanest mom ever because I make them do Summer Workbooks, which do work great by the way! However, sometimes you have to be a little more covert and I decided we'd have some fun with science kits that I picked up at Michaels....they won't even know they're learning... moohaahaa (evil laugh!). Our first kit was making their own Rock Candy...super fun! How can a kid not enjoy something that involves eating pure sugar, but along the way they learned about measuring, molecules, atoms, super-saturation, and crystallization, not bad for 9 a.m.!
The kit was great, it's the Smithsonian Rock Candy Kit, I paid less than $10 at our local Michaels and it included everything we needed except sugar, water, and a scale for accurate measuring.



The instructions included a good basic explanation of how crystals form, including what molecules and atoms are, although a picture would have been helpful here; it also had instructions that both kids could read and understand. It includes 3 flavor packages, berry, lemon and cherry but you can only make one flavor at a time; there is an order form inside that you could purchase more equiptment so you could grow more than 2 at a time.
It's a great introduction to crystals, everything we used was familiar to the kids; water, sugar, and the provided color and flavor packages. No complex chemical names or words they couldn't pronounce.
The morning of day 2 (Bailey is still in bed), and the crystals are really starting to grow now, it will be a few more days before they're done, but Collin could clearly see the shapes starting to form. In a few more days I'm sure they'll be ready to eat!

Summer is Here

We've had the most beautiful start to summer since we've lived in Arizona, almost 10 years now! The temps have been below 100 up until this week, and we've had a nice breeze and even a few clouds in the sky....all very unusual for June in Phoenix. The kids haven't been in the pool yet because we had to have it completely retiled, we're just waiting for the chemicals to balance out and we'll be swimming either today or tomorrow! In the mean time we've been keeping busy with other things, movies, friends, volleyball, badmitton, and LOTS of Legos!
I also decided that I wanted the kids to learn a little cooking over the summer, our first recipe we'd tackle is Grandma Gardner's Banana Bread (which she can no longer enjoy after developing a banana allergy...so we'll just enjoy it for her)!
Before the kids got up I set everything out that we'd need.Here's the recipe:
1c. sugar
1/2 c. melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 c. flour
3 TBSP sour milk (buttermilk works too)
3 mashed bananas
1/2 tsp salt
1. c walnuts (optional)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Cream eggs and sugar. Add butter and milk, mixing well. Mix dry ingredients together and slowly add but don't over mix. Add bananas and nuts. Bake in 2 greased loaf tins for 1 hour.
Collin got started by peeling and mashing up the bananas, a job well suited for a little boy!

Bailey started out by cracking the eggs (no shells!), and was ready to start mixing.

Mix away Bailey!

Before we knew it the batter was ready. However, I have to say I think I have the worlds largest bread pans, I should have put the entire recipe into one , since I did not, our bread turned out just a touch burned and dry. The kids however didn't seem to mind because once it cooled they asked daddy if they could get a slice, when I came downstairs it looked like rabid wolves had been in my kitchen! They definitely were enthusiastic about their baking adventure, hopefully next time mom won't over bake it!