Valentine's Day 2015

"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

"Peanut" and "Little"

Happy Valentine's Day from the Shacks!  Today we celebrate our life together as a family of four and thank Jesus for giving us the gift of each other.  We hope as parents we can teach our girls about compassion, selflessness, and how to see their own self-worth as a daughter of Christ.  We hope we can model for them what it looks like to love another person both romantically and in other ways.  Lord Jesus help us to be good at loving each other the way you love us. 

Dan first asked me to be his girlfriend on Valentine's Day 2002

Dan had to work on Valentine's Day so we had a fun family breakfast together.  Last week Lena spotted these huge red Valentine heart plastic goblets and wanted so badly to get one for everybody in the family.  But we were on her allowance shopping trip and she didn't have enough money to buy them all.  So as a surprise I went back a few days later and bought them and used them for our juice during our Valentine's breakfast.  I suppose we will use them every year during our Valentine's meal as a fun family tradition. 

Lena helped me set our pretty breakfast table.

Getting ready to drink our juice out of our special goblets!

Mommy didn't have time to put on any make up yet, but "cheers" anyways!

Valentine's Menu 2015

"Sweetish" Pancakes

Bacon & Sausage

Fruit Salad

Apple-Spinach Juice

Apple-Banana Rice Cereal (McKinley)

I even tried to do heart-shaped fried eggs.

Dan's V-Day cookie stash.

Lena and I made special Paleo cookies (and some not Paleo) for Daddy to take to work.  We decided to make him Paleo Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lena had a blast decorating her cookies.

We also made some of Lena's favorite sugar cookies and took some over to our neighbors with some Valentines that Lena picked out at the store and wrote her name on.  (She can do a fabulous "L" and a pretty good "E" so far!)

Daddy always picks great flowers!

Daddy bought us girls some pretty flowers and Lena bought Daddy a little love snow globe with her allowance money.

"Little" getting in on the V-Day fun.

Lena loves the snow!

We hope your heart is full of love as you celebrate with your family!

Toddler Victories: The Picky Eater

Eating her zucchini noodles the way Daddy taught her.

Being the mother of a picky eater I have learned to celebrate the little victories.  You know... like "Wahoo! She licked a banana!!!"  But today was a biggy!  A mom victory for the ages!  At dinner tonight I got my daughter to eat not one, not two, but six different vegetables in one fell swoop!  And she liked it!

It has been a long challenge to get Lena to eat any fresh fruits or vegetables.  Over the last year we have finally gotten her to like freshly juiced fruits and veggies, eat carrots, apples without the peel and that is pretty much it.  Lately I have been trying out new recipes that have more veggies in them and tonight I made roasted veggie ragu with Italian turkey sausage over raw zucchini spaghetti noodles.    We sat down to eat and as I watched her put "noodle" after "noodle" into her little mouth I tried to conceal the utter shock and excitement that was bubbling from inside.  Then when she took big mouthfuls of the ragu sauce I fully expected her to spit it out but she didn't! Success.  I am making this ALL THE TIME!  Now I need to invent even more recipes that can accomplish what this one did.

First I pulled out all the veggies from the fridge that needed to be used up.  Tonight that was carrots, red onion, red bell pepper, and broccoli. Then I roasted them at a high temperature while I made the base of the ragu.  I simmered plum tomatoes, olive oil, Italian herbs, and garlic.  Then I put the roasted veggies into the Vitamix with the sauce and pulsed it to make it smooth.  Lastly I added the cooked Italian turkey sausage.

 I served the ragu over raw zucchini noodles that I made with my spiral slicer.  Lena at hers with lots of "special cheese" also known as Parmesan. 

New Year...New Goals...Elizabeth Gets In Shape

Goal 1: Cook better / Eat better

Goal 2: Move More

Edible Easter Project: Egg Yolk Painting

Lena's first masterpiece.

A few days ago Lena and I did a fun edible art project that I remember doing every Easter when I was growing up: egg yolk painting on sugar cookie dough.  She loved it and it was a simple and fun activity we could all do together.  Here is what we did:

First Lena and I mixed up a batch of Ethel's Sugar Cookies from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. (See the recipe at the end of this post.)  While the dough was chilling I prepared the edible paints by cracking some eggs and separating the yolks from the whites.  Each yolk is put into a dish and mixed with food coloring.

Egg yolk paints ready to go!

Once the dough was chilled Lena rolled out the dough with her little rolling pin and we cut out shapes.  I rolled out thick cookies this time but if you like crispy cookies you can roll them thinner.  We chose an egg, butterfly, bunny, and cross for our Easter themed cookies.  I always bake on parchment paper which gives the cookies a nice even bake.

Raw cut out sugar cookies ready to be painted.

Then it was time to get creative!  Lena, Dan, and I each got a row of cookies to decorate.  We used little craft paint brushes and spoons to create our designs.

Daddy and Lena

Lena favored blue and green for her painted cookies.

From left to right: Daddy's cookies, Mama's cookies, Lena's cookies

Then it was time to pop the cookies in the 400 degree oven to bake.  Don't EVER follow the baking time in the cook books and don't ever cook sugar cookies until they are slightly golden brown.  They will be hard as a rock if you do!  Sugar cookies only bake until set (not glossy).  (Thinner, small cookies take 4 min and thicker large cookies take 6 min.)  They will be very delicate when they come out of the oven but just wait!  Let them sit and as they cool they will set up and be super soft, velvety, and totally baked.

Baking at 400 degrees for 4-6 minutes depending on thickness,

You can eat your creations at this point but I wanted to add a touch of sweetness with a simple glaze frosting.  It also helps keep the cookies nice and moist if you store them for a few days.  (See the glaze recipe below.)  I like to simply brush on the glaze right over the cookies.

Ready to apply a simple glaze to the baked cookies.

Lastly, we ate our cookies!  They are Lena's most favorite cookie that we bake together and I think she loved the added fun of painting them.

Mmmmm...good!  Lena picked Daddy's egg as her favorite cookie.

Ethel’s Sugar Cookies

adapted from Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book  (copyright 1977) with my changes

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla (I like to use 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond flavoring)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly.
2. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. Blend butter mixture and flour mixture.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
5. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
6. On a board that has been lightly floured with a mixture of flour, roll dough until it is 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with your favorite cooky cutter.
7. Place on an ungreased baking sheet lined with parchment paper
8. Bake 4 to 6 minutes, or until cookies are not glossy
9. Cool on a wire rack.  If desired brush on a glaze or spread on a thicker icing of your choice.

Makes 2-4 dozen cookies, depending on the size of the cutter and thickness of dough.

Glaze

1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond flavoring

1-3 Tablespoons milk

1. Blend sugar and vanilla.
2. Add milk 1 tablespoon at at a time until icing reaches a spreadable consistency.

Favorite Things: FOOD! How I lost six pounds in one week!

My overhauled bread bowl is now full of veggies for this week's recipes.

I am a total self professed foodie.  I love to eat, to bake, to savor lots of different flavors... I favor most cheese and baked goods.  Dan is also a foodie.  We encourage each other's foodie habits and spoil each other with our favorite foods.  I am one of those wives that shows her love through food.  I bake Dan treats, make yummy dinners, layout out spreads of our favorite cheese and accompaniments, I even bake homemade bread.  I am solely responsible for the baked goods addiction that many of Dan's co-workers have developed because I send baked goods to his office so often.  But this week things have begun to change....

I have come to the realization recently that when I bake really delicious but unhealthy treats and meals for my family (on a regular basis) I am not showing the right kind of love.  I have decided that I want my meals to say, "I am super delicious...I took time and thought to prepare...AND I will nourish your body and keep it working the proper way."  If I truly love my family I will take time to make them food that will keep them healthy, not send them to an early death.

Shopping for week 1 menu! (Plus a few extras like milk for Lena, Goldfish crackers for Lena, Spaghettios for Lena...etc.

I have wanted to change the way I cook for a long time but I put it off.  I didn't want to take the time to research recipes, restructure my pantry, and honestly I didn't want to give up making the baked goods that I love to make.  BUT...I didn't lose any weight from June until the end of September and I knew with my boot camp and triathlon training it wasn't because I wasn't exercising.  I knew that if I wanted to push through this weight loss plateau I was going to have to change the way I ate.

Crockpot meatballs and spaghetti squash.

Recently, I became acquainted with a food blogger online and in real life (I teacher her daughter piano lessons.) whose nutritional philosophy is: "It's time to change the way we eat.  It's time to cut out processed foods and to return to a diet filled with wholesome ingredients." I began following her blog www.realhealthyrecipes.com and her Facebook page (of the same name).  I was surprised by the variety of recipes she has posted and by how good they looked.  Still I was hesitant to try her recipes out because they called for some ingredients I hadn't tried before like blanched almond flour, coconut oil, coconut crystals, nutritional yeast, etc.  Then Diana, the food blogger, offered an 8-week menu planner with accompanying weekly shopping lists and I bought it and last week I began my 8-week boot camp towards a healthier lifestyle.  Here are my thoughts on my new food plan:

• I love shopping for all my meals in one shopping trip at the beginning of the week!
• I love not having to wonder what I should make for dinner every night.
• It is fun rating each meal on our menu so we can decide which ones we want to make again or tweak.
• It is surprisingly easy to make your own meals from fresh, non-processed food five nights a week.
• After not losing a pound all summer I lost six pounds in one week on this new meal plan.  
• Lena (my super picky eater) tried, ate, and liked,THREE new vegetables in one week.  Her favorite is cauliflower rice. (She has tons of variations of this rice that I can't wait to try!)
• I am a fan!

Most of the new ingredients were not that hard to find!  These were some good deals I found at Costco! (Coconut oil, coconut crystals, blue agave syrup)

Since I am such a fan of baked goods I love that Diana has tons of healthier cookie and dessert recipes for me to try.  My favorite so far is a blondie recipe that is awesome!  I am so glad that I have taken the plunge into learning healthier cooking techniques and some great new recipes.  I am certain that I will still eat cheese and have some of my old favorites occasionally but I LOVE that I have finally found a way to eat healthy food without getting bored and feeling deprived.  I will have to update once we get a few more weeks into our 8 week Real Healthy Menu.

4th of July - Celebrating our Freedom!

Lena and I sporting our patriotic colors!

Happy Independence Day!  We are having a great 4th of July weekend!  We started with a fun day at Grandma and Grandpa's house with a big family BBQ, swimming, playing games, and setting off fireworks!  

Dan was the the leader of the "fireworks set up team".

Snuggling with Mom during the fireworks.

Trying out a sparkler!

Watching from her wagon.

Lena wanted her bottle for comfort during fireworks.  

We spent the night and the next morning joined some cousins at Knott's Berry Farm for a fun morning on the rides in Camp Snoopy.  After more swimming, leftovers, and a nap we headed out to our first Southern California Catch baseball game of the season followed by dinner with the cousins at Chick fil A.  

Lena and four of her cousins on the Huff and Puff!

First time on the race cars!  "Weeeeeee!!!"

On the Knott's train!

First Harvest

This spring I planted several heirloom tomato and pepper plants as well as some strawberry plants and herbs.  After a couple months we are already seeing some of the fruit of our labor!  All three were delicious!  I can't wait till the plants really get producing.  I am excited to eat lots of fresh tomatoes and maybe try my hand at canning if we get enough tomatoes.

Ah Vacation....

So it has taken a bit to detox from the end of the school year.  Dan and I went into full vacation mode this past weekend when we went to stay with friends at the beach.  It was so relaxing to just play games, take walks, play a little Wii, and visit with good friends.  The gorgeous view of the ocean from the balcony (see above) helped the relaxation factor considerably.  We had a fun European style breakfast with various cheeses, meats, fresh baked baguette, apricots, blueberries, and sundried tomato pesto.   Thanks for the invite J&J!

On the 4th we spend the day and evening with our family.  Dan was the BBQ master for this family event.  He did a great job in the 90+ degree heat! 

Post BBQ we had a ton of fun with the little cousins and nephews setting off fireworks.  It was a tiring but SUPER fun day! Our poor dog Jersey was the most tired of all!