A few things

The boys seem to be getting better. They still have a cough, but Hudson has been fever-free since Tuesday. He saw the Dr yesterday and she started him on Pulmocort. It's through the nebulizer and should help clear out the gunk. We do have a prayer request though. He had the measles vaccination last Thursday before he got sick. There's a chance that he could have a reaction between that and the steroid he was on. Please pray that he doesn't get the measles.

The other day when it snowed 7 inches it took me 20 minutes to get out of our teeny tiny neighborhood. It usually takes me 1 minute. I got stuck multiple times. Ryan pushed me and and neighbor also pushed my car. The city did not come through to plow our neighborhood until well after 10pm on Wednesday. I did not know you need to have 4 wheel drive to get around in the city. Brooks was amused at watching my wheel's spin during the fiasco.

So you know how you get that nice big pile of snow at the end of your drive from the plows? That means I have to make sure I have a good motion going when entering and exiting our driveway. Today when I was leaving the house I forgot it was garbage day. Guess what I backed right into? Yeah, the big old garbage can. I don't think I did any damage. Maybe all that nasty dirt on my car protected it. Brooks and Hudson thought it was funny and Brooks told me not to crash any more.

Recipes for the week

For this week...
We go through a lot of this honey mustard. The kids love it on just about anything. I use spicy brown mustard, but you could use whatever you have on hand.

I have stopped buying pancake syrup in the store. Instead, I make my own. It's easy and cheap!

I've also stopped buying packaged bread in the store. Although I do occasionally make an exception if I find some artisan bread marked down, because it makes the best grilled cheese. Most of the packaged bread contains high fructose corn syrup, even the "healthy" whole grain stuff. We love this recipe for Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread. It has lots of good all-natural ingredients.

Honey Mustard
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup mustard
1/4 cup honey
dash of salt

1. Mix together. Tastes best after refrigerated for a couple hours.

Pancake Syrup
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup light corn syrup
3 drops maple flavoring
3 drops vanilla

1. Place the sugars, water, and corn syrup in a saucepan. Mix together and heat over medium heat until boiling.
2. Remove from heat and add in the flavorings. You might want to add more maple flavoring depending on your taste preference.

Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread
1 1/4 cup water
1 TB olive oil
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp yeast

1. Place the ingredients in your bread machine pan in the order you machine likes it.
2. Run on the regular light setting.

Wordless Wednesday

Not quite the weekend I had in mind...

I was looking forward to having a weekend with just me and Ryan. The boys went to Grandma and Pop Pop's house. The boys both had a cough, but didn't seem like much to be worried about since they weren't running a fever and were acting normal.

We called to check on them Saturday morning and Hudson had thrown up at breakfast, but he had been coughing so we chalked it up to that.

Ryan and I had a nice morning, I went to the Y and he went mountain biking. We had lunch and then went to see Slumdog Millionaire. I can't remember the last time we saw a movie in the theater together. We both saw The Dark Knight over the summer, but separately. Anyways, Slumdog was really really good. We both really liked it, it was hard to watch at times, but it has a good ending.

We then went to Target and got a few things and headed home to get ready for dinner. We had decided to try Kokoro, a sushi/Japanese place downtown. We had never been there because we had heard your meal can take forever because the owner and his wife make all the food themselves. We thought it would be a good night to try it since we didn't have any time constraints. We got a seat right away and ordered some Thai spring rolls and 2 sushi rolls. We sat on the bar side so we could see the owner making all the sushi. They call him Crazy Tony because sometimes he will yell at his servers and will even kick people out of the restaurant. I guess you could compare him to the Soup Nazi. Crazy Tony seemed to be in a pretty good mood on Saturday night because we didn't see any yelling and our food came pretty quickly.

The food was all really good, I had started eating my second piece of the shrimp sushi roll when I got a wave of nausea. Not good... I kept sipping water to see if it would pass and it didn't, I started feeling worse. I told Ryan that I had to go sit in the car because at that point the smells of everything were starting to hit me in a bad way. I went out to the car and waited for him to pay. I felt really bad that he spent all that money on some really good food and I didn't get to enjoy it. We went home and I headed straight for the bathroom and then to bed (at 8pm). Over the course of the night I threw up a couple times. It wasn't the food because Ryan didn't have any problems.

Sunday morning we stayed home, no cooking a big breakfast for Ryan and no church. I ate a few crackers and just laid around. Ryan's parents called to see if we wanted to meet them at Baja Peninsula(a great restaurant) for linner. I felt sick just thinking about eating anything so I told Ryan to go without me. He went and then brought the kids home. When Hudson came in the door he headed straight for me and didn't want to leave me. He was burning up and just looked misreable. His breathing was fast and he was coughing, so Ryan took him to Urgent Care. They diagnosed him with a ear infection and bronchitis. He's on an antibiotic, a steroid and breathing treatments with the nebulizer. The doctor said it was good that we brought him in then. I just have the bad memories from a year ago when they both had pnemonia.

Brooks woke up hacking this morning so I gave the nurse a call and she had me start him on breathing treatments. Guess we won't be going to swimming lessons tonight!

Oh, Ryan did bring me home one of my favorite dishes (Salmon, polenta and green beans) from Baja yesterday and I just ate it for lunch. It was yummy. I'm glad to be eating real food again!

Good News

Thanks for all your prayers for Baby Jagger. His surgery went well yesterday and they did not find any problems. He was released from the hospital this afternoon. Please continue to pray that his follow up MRI will not show any problems and that he heals quickly.

Brooks was so excited to hear that Baby Jagger is going to be ok. His face lit up and he started clapping and jumping up and down.

Wordless Wednesday

Recipes of the Week

Here's the recipe for the pizza sauce. I didn't have any celery or fennel seed, so I left it out. It tasted great without it. I had never made pizza sauce before, I usually just use whatever jarred pasta sauce I have on hand, but I was out of pasta sauce. I will be making my own pizza sauce now using this recipe. As for the pizza, we put Italian sausage, sun dried tomatoes, and caramelized onion on it. The beans and rice recipe is one I've made a couple times now. It's great for lunch or dinner. We've served tortilla chips with it and even homemade corn tortillas. The boys love it. I've also made the Cinnamon bread and french toast several times. I make the bread the day before and let it sit out to get a little stale for the french toast. I've never had french toast at Denny's (or been there in the past 20 years), but it was the #1 french toast recipe on Recipezaar, so I had to try it.

Ultimate Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup celery, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed

Directions

1. In a large skillet, melt butter with the oil. Add the onion, celery and garlic and saute until soft and transparent.
2. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir until smooth.
3. Add remaining ingredients and bring to slow simmer.
4. Simmer for 30-60 minutes (or not at all depending on your taste and time frame).
5. Remove the bay leaf and spread the sauce on your prepared pizza dough.

Santa Fe Rice and Beans

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 (10 ounce) can of diced Mexican-style tomatoes (like Rotel)
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup low-fat sour cream
• 2 cups shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, combine beans, corn, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, 1 cup cheese and cooked rice. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Transfer to a greased 2 quart baking dish and top with onions and olives.
4. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese and bake 5-10 minutes longer until cheese is melted.

Cinnamon Sugar Bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 egg
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons yeast

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer.
2. Bake using the sweet bread setting if your machine has it.
3. If not, use white bread setting.
4. When the bread is done, remove from the machine and let sit on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
5. If it sticks, just loosen the sides with a pliable, plastic spatula and it should slip out easily.
6. This makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf that rose really nicely.
7. I did check the dough about 5, 10 minutes into the kneading cycle; if you squeeze a good amount of the dough between your thumb and fingers and it seems a bit moist, and some dough sticks to your fingers, it should be just right; if not, adjust with water or flour accordingly.

Denny's Style French Toast

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 slices Texas toast thick bread
• 3 tablespoons butter
• powdered sugar
• butter
• syrup

Directions

1. Mix together the eggs, milk, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt& cinnamon.
2. Heat a large skillet, or griddle.
3. When the skillet is hot, add 1 tablespoon butter.
4. If the butter smokes, your pan is too hot; turn down the heat.
5. Dip each slice of bread into the batter for 30 seconds on each side.
6. Let some of the batter drip off, then put in skillet.
7. Cook each slice 1 1/2-2 minutes per side until each side is golden brown.
8. Add more butter, if necessary, to cook all of the slices.
9. To serve, put on plate, dust with powdered sugar. Serve with butter & hot syrup.

It's been cold

Ryan got out of school Thursday and Friday due to the cold, so he's been enjoying his 5 day weekend. I felt really bad for all the Purdue students that had to hike around campus in the sub-zero temperatures. I was happy to find a parking spot close to work so I didn't have to make the 5 minute walk from the parking garage. I thought for sure no one would come to my AquaRock class Thursday evening, but 10 showed up! I've been averaging around 20, so it was a good number.

Ryan had fun watching Maggie and Abby yesterday morning while Sarah and I went to BodyPump and Zumba. Since the kids didn't get to see each other on Friday they were really excited to get together and play.

We haven't been up to much else this weekend besides trying to stay warm. We made homemade pizza on Friday night. I tried out making my own pizza sauce and it turned out really well. I have a turkey roasting in the oven right now. I'm roasting it using the convection roast setting of the oven, my first time to try it that way. I'm also making twice baked potatoes for the first time ever, hopefully Ryan likes them...

Prayers needed

My cousin Jala gave birth to a baby boy on January 13th. His name is Jagger and he needs your prayers as he will be undergoing surgery this week. He has a small dimple on his lower spine which is completely sealed but leads to a cavity it is an explatoratory surgery, please pray for Jala and John for comfort and peace and for Jagger and the neurosurgeon who performs the surgery. Please pray that it is not connected to his spine and that it is nothing that will affect his precious life! His surgery is scheduled for Wednesday at 8am.

My Aunt Nancy holding Baby Jagger.

Wordless Wednesday

Special request recipe

This recipe is for a special request by Mom and Jess. It's really yummy and great for a cold day.

Hearty Lentil and Sausage Stew

Ingredients
2 cups dry lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup sliced carrots
4 cups chicken broth or water
1 tsp cumin
1 bay leaf
1/2 pound smoked sausage, sliced

1. Place all ingredients in the crockpot. Stir to combine.
2. Cook on low for 8 hours, or until the lentils have absorbed the liquid and are tender. Add more liquid if too dry.

The blog has not been down...

I know, I know...I haven't blogged for awhile. Sorry, I just didn't feel like it. Pretty lame excuse, huh?

We're all doing well. Brooks and Hudson started swimming lessons last week at the Y. Brooks is in the "big kid" class and Hudson is still in the Parent/Child group. Brooks really likes his teacher, Carrie, who is also guards for me when I teach.

I made it to the Y 5 times last week for 6 classes. They had a bunch of new classes starting up for the new year. I tried Zumba and BodyPump, along with the Spinning class I've been taking. Zumba was a lot of fun. It's a latin dance class. I'm not much of a dancer, but I had a fun time with it and was very sore the next day. I'm not too sore from BodyPump yesterday. Since it was my first try with it, I went on the lighter side for the weights and will bump it up a notch next time.

We had our friends the Culvers over for lunch today after church. They had a new baby 3 weeks ago, it's their 4th and her name is Bethany. Brooks and Hudson each took a turn holding her.


I'll try to do a better job of blogging this week...