Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Busy weekend!

"What? I just want to take a nap, leave me alone!"

Yes, this is comfortable!

"My turn!!"

I could not get this boy to take a good picture so I had to tickle him so he would take his hands off his face. 

Such a pretty girl!

Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Dennis have an above ground pool so we enjoyed the afternoon in it. 

I so wish this was totally in focus!! I love it!

Lillian isn't smiling in this one but it's in focus!!

Lillian had cereal for the first time the other day and loved it. She opened her mouth for the spoon after only three times and didn't spit much out. (It looks like she did but really she did really good.)

I guess Will wanted in the picture too :)

Monday, July 16, 2012

Family update:

Oh my. So much has gone on and we are so busy with garden stuff. I have started week two of sweet pickles. Pickle relish is in the process of being made. We have frozen several bags of corn and already enjoyed our fair share of green beans.


Lillian is up to 15 pounds and 25". 75% all around. She is doing great and we have been very lucky that we haven't had to give her any formula for about two and a half months. I would like to see how she tolerates it now but since she doesn't need it, it's kinda pointless to try. We have finally gotten her to get to bed around 7ish. This is great for me since chopping season is only days away I usually need to sleep before going in when working nights. Because of this, she now get up once in the night but that's okay, I'd rather have her in bed early and get up than sleep all night. I'm getting close to saying that she is now a blonde! She just has a little dark hair in the back but the top of her head is pretty light. 


Will is just his crazy self. He is going to miss his Dad like crazy when it comes to chopping season. We are unable to keep him inside.He has mastered the lock that we installed at the top of the door. It took him only a couple weeks to figure out how to unhook it with the broom. Last night he was fully entertained by finding old, hot beer and from the top of the deck throwing them on the sidewalk. Once he finally got it to squirt he would chase the cats and the dog around the yard. There were about 18 beer cans empty on the sidewalk this morning. He is getting so close to being potty trained! Not at night of course but during the day he loves getting his candy as a reward for going potty. The trick will be to teach him not to potty on things in the house. 


As I said before, chopping season is only days away from starting. Dennis said that if it doesn't rain then Wednesday should be the day. I'm excited for him. He got a new chopper so hopefully that means no break downs and faster chopping. (And a new house next year but I'm not holding my breath!) 


The garden is keeping me busy. So much so that my work outs have gone out the window. The scales have noticed it too. I know I was keeping you posted on how it was going and I'm sure you guessed that it slowed down. By the time the kids are in bed I just want to finish cleaning up the kitchen a bit and relax. That needs to change. This week I'm going to start making sure that I get at least one workout a day! I feel good when I do it and eat healthy. Yet another reason junk needs to get out of my system! We are canning the pickle relish today and this weekend I will be making the sweet pickles (finishing the 2nd week anyway.)


So here's to a good chopping season! Prayers to all the guys out there in every field to stay safe. It seems every year Dennis tells me another story of someone getting injured or killed in farming accidents. 

Just some cute pics:

^ Too tired to try to roll over. By the way, this outfit came without the pick under part when Dad did his shopping. No one will as how old 'he' is when wearing pink under it!!!


^ Watching Mickey Mouse

^Sweet corn!!! Gotta love this time of the year!!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Zucchini Bread Experiment

Well, there's only a hundred zucchinis on our three plants. So naturally, I have enough to make twice that much zucchini bread! I thought I'd do a little experiment. I made the ol' fashioned, full fat, yummy quick bread (#1). Then I made the same recipe only used applesauce instead of oil and splenda instead of sugar (#2). Then I made a Zucchini Coconut Bread (#3). 

#1

I'm sure all of you have had the original zucchini bread so it's not worth repeating what it is like other than a typical quick bread. It was moist, fluffy, great taste and well half eaten.

This was the recipe I used:

3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 c. sugar
1c. vegetable oil
4 eggs beaten
1/3 c. water
2 c. grated zucchini
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (I didn't use any because I like plain only and not in my food.)

Preheat oven to 350*. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon, and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean. 

#2

The second, was made with applesauce instead of vegetable oil and splenda instead of  sugar. The 'healthier' version has pretty good taste but the texture has something to desire. It's pretty rubbery and just not as comporting as the original. 

#3

This version is quite good with a texture close to bread pudding, just less liquid and a little more done, very dense bread. It is made with coconut oil witch is a saturated fat but the fats that it is made of are known to increase metabolism and promote weight loss. 

Recipe is followed:

3/4 c. loosely packed shredded zucchini 
6 eggs, separated
1/2 c. coconut milk (or 2 more eggs)
1/2 coconut oil (or butter) melted
1/2 c. Just Like Sugar (I used splenda because I didn't have any)
1 tsp. pure vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3/4 c. coconut flour (I only had AP)
1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a loaf pan w/ coconut oil or butter. Separate 4 eggs into two bowls. Whip the egg whites until very fluffy. (I didn't get it that fluffy so I'm sure that's why it was so dense.) In the other bowl, blend together the 4 egg yolks, zucchini, oil, coconut milk, sweetener, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Then add the other 2 eggs (or 4 if no coconut milk), one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine coconut flour and baking powder and sift into batter. Blend until there are no lumps. Fold in nuts. Gently fold in egg whites into the batter. Pour into greased pan. Top with unsweetened coconut flakes and bake for 60 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. 



 The one on the left is made with applesauce, one on the right (it was still hot when I put it on the plate so it fell apart on me) is the traditional bread and the bottom one is the coconut zucchini bread. 

Nutritional comparison:
Traditional= 377 calories, 43 carbs, 2 fiber
Coconut= 135 calories, 5.2 carbs, 2.3g. fiber.
unknown on the applesauce version.

(Those are in the order of my favorites but the calorie difference may switch the first two around!)


Dad went shopping :)


But it's adorable even though I got asked how old "he" is.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy 4th!

The cookie platter I'm taking to a 4th of July BBQ tonight. Isn't it pretty?!

I have to admit that I'm pretty proud of my flags!

I ended up making a BUNCH of hearts!

Have a drink on me!


Sunday, July 1, 2012

3 month photos


This is maybe the best one. I just did a horrible job at these. This is out of focus and I couldn't capture her smile.


Aaaaaand she was getting hungry at this point so no smiles here. This one is in focus pretty good but way over exposed. But here are a few. I need to find some time to go out again before she turns another month older.