Just Another Saturday

Even though it's March Break, Saturday happens as it usually does around here. Scott headed out to bowling with the boys (Thanks for coming to see them Grandma and Grandpa!) and Norah and I stayed home. Norah would LOVE to go to the bowling alley more often but all she wants to do is slide down the ball return and run up the lanes. So we don't take her often...

She was awfully cute this morning so I tried to get a pic, but that too proved to be a challenge...

Probably the best one!

She is constantly rushing the camera and getting way too close.

And she never stands still, so it's blurry.

Cute, but blurry.

Her "cheese" face.

Then I tried to take one of both of us.

And quickly gave up.

Next, we headed to the kitchen to do some baking.

Pretty happy to be at the counter.

Taste testing!

This is fun!

Helping to stir.

Doing the dishes was her favourite part.

Bubbles (or some sort of rendition) is a part of her very limited vocabulary, it got lots of use in the sink though!

Basically, she just tried drinking out of anything cup like.

A snack after all that hard work.

I'm no food photographer but here's the finished product, lemon squares!

Now that Logan can read, he often retreats to his bed to read alone. It's awesome!

Jacob playing.

They call this "playing camping". When they bring their pillows downstairs and lie on the floor...

Trying out some mustaches Aunt Pamela sent us a while ago!

He was here today too!

 Playdough time!

Logan heard about testing the smoke alarms today on TVO kids. So they did it and printed out the certificate.

After supper treat.

We had another yummy supper and then took the kids swimming at the Rec Centre. I'm tired, anyone else?

New Things to Blog About

I think I'm going to try blogging about some of the food that I've been cooking. I've been trying lots of new recipes and like some of them and don't like some of them. I get them from lots of different places so sometimes when I want to make something again, I have a hard time finding it. Maybe if I blog the recipes, they'll all be in a central place so I can find them. Plus, some of you might find something to try!

So we're trying to cook with and eat less meat. I'm also trying to ensure that the kids are introduced and used to a wide variety of foods and flavours. It's a challenge sometimes to make meals that are meatless but filling enough and that aren't too spicy for the boys.

Tonight we had "Miami Rice and Bean Burritos".

1 cup canned chicken broth
2/3 cup mild salsa
3/4 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 can (16 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
8 flour tortilla (7 inch diameter)

Bring chicken broth and salsa to a boil over high heat. Stir in rice. Reduce heat to low; simmer, cover 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, cumin and allspice; cook and stir 3 minutes.

Add beans and vinegar; cook and stir 2 minutes or until heated through. Coarsely mash bean mixture with potato masher

Preheat oven to 350F.

Spread about 3 tablespoons bean mixture on bottom half of each tortilla; top with rice mixture. Roll tortillas to enclose filling.

Place burritos in baking dish. Cover; bake 20 minutes or until heated through. Garnish as desired.

A tortilla before being rolled up.

Ready to go in the oven. (I had some extra rice so I just put it on top).

I served them with green onions, salsa and sour cream as garnish and carrots and green peppers on the side. Scott and I really liked them; Logan didn't say they were yucky, but didn't gobble them up either; and Jacob, well he eats pretty much anything.

They had lots of flavour. I think next time if I'm making them for the kids, I'll use a bit less cumin as they were a little spicy. A few times when Jacob took a bite he spit it out pretty quick and I think it was likely the spice.

They were also quite filling, I guess it was the beans!