Eggplant Convert

I posted last week that I didn't like eggplant. And then we got one in our Farm Share basket. I left it alone for a  few days to think about what I wanted to do with it. I had been thinking about making a side dish, but I don't usually make a lot of complicated side dishes.  Most of my sides go more like: "wash fruit/veggie, slice, put on plate, serve." Then as a (sort of) joke, I decided to Google "Eggplant Frittata."  And I got a bunch of hits! So I decided to make an eggplant frittata for our Meatless Monday last night. Here's my "recipe." You need:

• medium sized eggplant
• 2-3 tomatoes
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• fresh garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder
• 8 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (optional)

Chop eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes. You can peel it or not, depending on how thick the skin it. I peeled half of it, just to see what would happen. (I couldn't tell much of a difference in the end.) Put the cubes in a colander and coat them with a handful of salt. Let them sit over the sink or a bowl for about half an hour. The salt draws the liquid out of the eggplant and apparently takes out the "bitterness." 
Meanwhile dice two tomatoes, empty and refill the dishwasher and start a load of laundry. After 30 minutes, rinse the eggplant well. Add about two tablespoons of oil to an oven proof saute pan. Cook the eggplant for about 5 minutes and the add the tomatoes and a sprinkle of garlic. Saute together until the tomatoes are falling apart and the eggplant is cooked. Meanwhile, have the hubby mix together eggs, milk and shredded cheese. Pour this mixture into your pan and let it cook until the edges are set. Then, slip it into a 350ish oven for about 20 minutes, or until it is fluffy and cooked through. Eat and enjoy!!

We really enjoyed this dish!  Benjamin even put a bite in his mouth! (He then spit it out, but hey! that's dinner time progress folks!) Henry kept asking if there were mushrooms and olives in it. I had to tell him, sadly, no; but it sounds like a really good addition and maybe I'll do that next time.

We ate this with quartered clementines, which thankfully were not full of seeds like the last bag I bought. Benjamin ate a few of those, but he didn't like the ones with no membrane around them. Not sure if that's a texture issue or what, but he is the only one of my kids who regularly asks for a "nakkum" (AKA napkin) at dinner.

These are my leftovers at lunch today. This is also why I am not a food photographer!

Is This All I Post About!?!

Groceries and cleaning, cleaning and groceries. My life revolves around these two things! We usually make a grocery run after church on Sundays, but this Sunday I had to meet my parents at home to get the kids' stuff back before they went home.  Also, Ken had to work, and I didn't feel up to grocery shopping by myself on little sleep and an empty stomach.
We went home and the kids had lunch and went to take naps. No one even complained, so I am sure they were tired.  I took a short nap and read a book (Inkheart). After everyone was done napping, we loaded up the van and headed to the store. This is week three of our menu experiment and I was excited to see how little I could have us spend. I had rearranged a couple of things just to take advantage of what we already had, so I was convinced that this would be a small trip.

In the end, we spent $89.22.  I bought a lot of fresh produce because there were some good sales. I didn't have to buy very much meat, though, so that is where we saved.
When we got home the kids helped put away the groceries. Henry is getting pretty good at sorting the fruits and veggies and putting them in the correct drawers. Frances' job is to hold the refrigerator door shut because apparently Benjamin's job is to try and shut the refrigerator door at all costs!

I made ham and mac-n-cheese for dinner. It wasn't in the plan, but we got sidetracked with the yard sale over the weekend, so I went with it.

We are back at the beginning of our cleaning rotation, so Monday we worked on the kids' room together after dinner.  Things went a little bit more smoothly as the kids and I have a better idea of how things work. Plus the little, itty bitty "dent" we made last week was mostly still there and we made it just a teensy bit bigger. Henry's main job was to get all the stuffed animals out of his bed and put them in a bin. Do you know that he filled a 40 gallon Rubbermaid tote with all the stuffed that had been in his bed?!?!  I told him he could put 5 back. He seemed fine with that, but now I wonder where to put all the rest.
Frances cleaned up a lot of her dress up clothes in her closet.
Benjamin climbed into his crib and "accidentally" dropped his "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" doll repeatedly.  Then he had to have help to climb out and get it again. He did mostly stay out of the way, though, so I was happy. 
The kids no longer complain (much) when I announce that it's cleaning time. It has started to become part of our routine. They like picking which countdown time and which music we will use on our timer app and I try to make it a little bit fun when we all work together. Plus they know that after all the work is done, they get to put on their PJs and watch tv until bed time. It's not really a bad deal!

Weekend Recap

I have had a corner of my basement dedicated to yard sale items for about 3 years now. Every time I do cleaning or decluttering and I don't know what to do with something, I put it down in that corner.  The problem was, that corner started to take over my basement.  It just started creeping outwards with more and more stuff I didn't feel like taking care of.
I have said all summer that I was going to have a yard sale and then dates kept falling through. I finally invited a friend from work to come over and help out and we set a date. I didn't actually do much other than that, but now I had an accomplice and this was going to get done!! The Friday before the yard sale I posted it in Craigslist and Facebook.  That's about it. I didn't even really start looking through things until Friday evening after Frances went to bed (my mom kept the boys, so they wouldn't be in the way).  My dad helped me bring a bunch of stuff upstairs and we put it all in that tent you see in the background.
I woke up at about 4:30 on Saturday morning and got moving again. My brother Alan had come up the night before and he helped get things set out.  I didn't price a single thing. We just made it up as we went along. I really couldn't decide if my goal was to make money or to get rid of stuff.  It was a little bit of both, I guess.
We didn't do too badly. I made about $100. My parents had donated some stuff as well as my older brother. We sold most of the big stuff and everything else went to Goodwill afterwards.  I did pull aside some of the leftover clothes to give to friends.  I hate parting with my kids' clothes. I had to repeatedly tell myself "The memories of my kids in these clothes are not attached to clothes themselves." And I cried. I even get teary just typing that out!  I like giving our clothes away to friends, because then I know I'll see them again and smile.  My friend Stacey used to give me hand-me-downs for Henry and I always teased her because when she would see Henry wearing them, she would comment about it. I used to wonder how she remembered all those clothes, but now I know.  They just stick in your head!
I have missed being able to go to yard sales this summer. I just feel like it's too much getting the kids in and out of the car over and over again.  Yard sales are such a great place to get good deals on clothes, especially for kids! I had one woman visit with just that mindset!
I had placed a sign near the clothes that they were "25c a piece, small bag for $1.00 and large bag for $5.00." I thought that was a pretty good deal because you can get a lot of clothes in a grocery bag! And I had already told my friend and my brother not to haggle with anyone over the definition of a small bag versus a large bag. I had a woman come over and ask me if I would take a bag price on the clothes. I glanced over, and the sign was half-covered, so I just smiled and said "Sure!"  She said, "Does $3 sound fair?" and I said "OK."  I turned around to get her a bag and when I turned back she said, "Is it okay if I use my own bag?"  Ummmm...OK?  I said "OK," but I was really feeling a bit tricked.  Then I watched her go through all the bins of clothes and stuff them in her HUGE bag and I was feeling VERY tricked!  Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I was able to get rid of clothes, but she knew what she was doing when she started filling that bag and I'll bed she got them all for about 10c a piece!  GRRRR! Plus, she paid me in advance, so I wasn't sure what to say to her. I am not one to be confrontational and she really took advantage of that.
In the end, I cleaned out a huge area in my basement. I made a lot of people happy with new finds. I spent a fun day with Megan, my brother and my dad, and I had a hoot watching Frances sell drinks to our customers! All in all it was a good day!

FundFest

Last night I got to help with a great community event called FundFest.  FundFest is a fundraiser for local charities.  They can apply to be a "host" for the event and then the chosen organizations help out on their assigned night.  At the end of the season, all the profits are pooled together and split equally among the chosen charities. It think that's great because if your assigned night is rained out or not well attended, you still make money off of it.  The afterschool program that Frances and Henry go to/will go to were chosen to host this year and since I am on the board, I went along to help out. We set up a fence around the perimeter of the area and set up tables for the food and drink vendors. We also put up signs for advertisements and a big Second Home sign since we were the hosts. At the end of the night we just did everything in reverse. It was a big job, but we have enough people pitching in that it went very smoothly.  Last year Second Home made $1600 off this event!!
FundFest runs from 6-8:30 PM every other Wednesday during the summer. Each night has a different local band playing. You make a $2 donation to get in and then you can just hang out, listen to music, and have fun. You can buy pizza and drinks (beer, wine, soda and water) but you can't bring in outside food.  I helped with the pizza and soft drink table along with some other Second Home board members. We had a blast!  The music was great, the conversation was engaging and the people watching was fabulous!
I am hoping that we can take the family for one of the remaining nights.I think they would all enjoy it.

I Like Eggs and Plants, but not Eggplants

Growing up my family always had a large garden.  We grew tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, a lots of other fresh veggies. We also had raspberries. I remember our neighbor, Myrtle would come over and help herself to our garden--with our permission of course. She loved picking raspberries. One year she had Thanksgiving dinner with our family. My mom offered her some of my grandmother's cranberry sherbet.  She replied that she didn't want any because she didn't like getting the seeds in her teeth. That never stopped her from picking raspberries, though!!
Having the garden was great because we rarely had to buy vegetables. I wasn't a fan of squash growing up, but I think I liked more vegetables than most of my friends. We even grew some interesting vegetables that I've not seen in stores, like kohlrabi.

We don't have a good garden space at our house.  Our backyard is shaped like a slice of pie and heads downhill into a sink hole.  Our front yard is already littered with the kids' outdoor toys, but last year we decided to try some container gardening.  We figured that containers wouldn't tear up the yard too badly for future homeowners, but would still allow us to have some fresh veggies.   Last year we had a pretty good harvest.  We grew squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers. 

This year, we've not had good luck.  We planted squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.  The only thing we will be able to harvest is the tomatoes.  I'm not sure if it's a matter of the extraordinarily hot weather, me not watering as well, or something else.

Thankfully, though, this summer Ken and I split a farm share with some friends from Radical Roots Farm.  We are thoroughly enjoying it!  Every other week when our turn comes, we get a bushel basket full of fresh veggies straight from the garden.  It's been great because there is a good variety of veggies and they are grown locally and organically.  It also gives us the chance to try some new things that we wouldn't normally buy in the stores.  As it turns out, my kids LOVE Swiss chard!

However, this week, I was dealt quite the hand...We got an eggplant.  I don't like eggplant.  I don't even know why. I honestly don't know the last time I tried it. I can hear my grandmother in my head saying, "You have to try at least a bite!"  But, I DON'T WANNA!!  I feel like such a hypocrite because I make my kids try things they don't like.  Over and over again, in fact. I've told Frances that you have to try a new food 27 times before you can decide whether you like it or not.  She's actually come around on a few things. I used to not like zucchini or squash, but I eat those on a regular basis now.

So, I'm going to be a big girl. I'm going to cook that eggplant.  I'm going to serve it at dinner and eat it with my family. Can you help me out, though?  Do you know any good recipes?

Monday Musings

Saturday was rainy most of the day and we ended up staying home. The kids wanted to watch TV and I didn't feel like arguing with them.  We do have a new deal, though. For each show that they watch, they owe me a chore-and they have to pay up before the next show comes on. The chores usually include little ten minute job like putting away laundry, emptying the dishwasher, or putting toys away. The kids sigh and moan when I remind them, so of course I know I am being a good mom!
I spent a lot of Saturday cleaning and straightening. I was up and down the stairs multiple times. It wasn't until about 3 PM, though that I walked into the bathroom to see my pedometer sitting on the space heater. GRRRR! All those steps and none of them counted!! Oh well. At least the house looks better.
Ken did a bunch of laundry on Saturday morning before he went to work.  All we have to wash right now is what we wore yesterday. I almost hesitate to say that because every time I think we are caught up, something happens to get us behind again. I have to say, though, we've been doing pretty well with keeping up with the new cleaning pattern. I am keeping the faith that the teeny tiny little dents we are making in each room will continue to grow.  Hopefully the yard sale we are planning this weekend will help too!
As for food and groceries...I was WAY wrong when I said we would spend less on groceries this week!  Last week we spent $124.39 and that was for two weeks' worth of food. This week we spent $144.39!! The good news is that we got good prices on food we will eat later. The bad news is that very little of that food is for this week.
Last night I made chicken and dumplings for dinner. The recipe was quite easy and even though I didn't follow it exactly, it turned out really well. Frances and Henry both enjoyed is (as well as Ken and I). Benjamin isn't eating much of anything for dinner lately, so I won't take his opinion into consideration.
We managed a walk after dinner last night.  The kids all took their bikes and Ken and I walked with them. I feel bad because Frances doesn't really know how to ride a bike. We don't live in a good neighborhood for bike riding and it seems like so much work to drive somewhere to ride your bike.  She got some good practice out of it and we all got some exercise and fresh air. When we go through the cemetery there is a mausoleum or some sort of large building on our route. The kids always stop at "the castle" to play for a bit. Last night they put on a play starring "Super Bike Riding Princess," "SuperMan (Henry)" and "Super Knight" (Benjamin).  The climax of the show was a sword fight between Super Bike Riding Princess and SuperMan. They each had a stick and were going to fight for the prize of a feather they had found.  They started clicking the "swords" together and Henry was waving his pretty wildly. My "parent-of-the-year" award winning comment was, "Frances, maybe you should have left your bike helmet on!"

Frances: Chef in the Making

Frances has been attending lots of different summer camps this summer and she is having a blast!!  This week she participated in the Summer Enrichment Program put on by our local school system.  The class she chose was entitled "Chefs in the Making." Her class had field trips to the local farmer's market, a grocery store, a (high-end) restaurant (that her parents have never been too), and a local farm. At the farm she had the opportunity to harvest potatoes, collect fresh eggs and pick blackberries.
On the last day of camp, the campers prepared and served a three course luncheon for their families. Ken and I were excited to participate.

We had our choice of appetizers:

• antipasta kabobs
• cucumbers will dill cream cheese
• bruschetta with crostini
• deviled eggs

 And desserts:

• fruit pizzas
• caramel dipped grapes with walnuts
• congo bars 
• peanut butter pretzel bites

The main course was something Frances called "spaghetti bread."  It was spaghetti and sauce inside a braided garlic bread. There was also a salad with fresh spinach, cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes and onions.

The whole meal was delicious. In fact, when the teacher invited people to come up for seconds I embarrassed myself a bit by being one of the first in line along with a bunch of the kids!
Frances had a great time and was very proud of herself for what she had done. The each got a DVD with their own cooking show on it and a cookbook to take home.

The best part is that one of her teachers taught her that "chefs don't do dishes!"  I could get used to that!!

Menu Check-In, pt.2

We have made it to Friday with our new menu plan. As expected, we have had a few bumps this week, but I am keeping track and taking notes so I can tweak this to be a great system for our family. The first issue we had is that I had put BBQ sandwiches right next to Sloppy Joes. It didn't end up being a big deal because of the free pizza night from Cici's and the local fire department.  We moved the BBQ from Wednesday to Thursday and then skipped the Sloppy Joes. I am going to go ahead and make the Sloppy Joes tonight and put them in the freezer. Adding that to the BBQ that was left over from last night, I will have two meals ready to go in the freezer for a night we need them. That also bring the price per meal on the BBQ down even further. I paid $19 for 8 pounds of meat that will end up being 4 meals! Sounds like a deal to me!
The other issue we have come across is that even with Ken and I eating leftovers for lunch during the week, we have way more food than we need. I am considering the possibility of having two leftover nights a week.  I would leave one on the weekend and have another one on Monday or Wednesday because those are the nights Ken usually works late. Probably Wednesday to keep the "Meatless Mondays."  Maybe we can call it "Wecycled Wednesday." If I decide to go with two leftover nights a week, it would mean I could take off six recipes, find four more and then make another two week set to add to the rotation. That would mean only eating the same thing every two months.

The other thing we have been experimenting with is cleaning. Not a strength for anyone in our house! I created a two week rotation for all the rooms we have and assigned each room a different night. Bathroom is on there twice and weekends are not listed. The goal is to spend 30 minutes in each room as it's turn comes around.  We also spend 30 minutes on daily tasksFor right now, 30 minutes doesn't seem to get a lot done, but it makes a small dent and is helping us establish a routine. I am tired of living in an unorganized house and I am fearful of what I am teaching my children by not having them help out with these tasks. On the bright side, it seems Frances LOVES scrubbing the toilet, Henry thinks sorting laundry is a game and Benjamin has a blast running back and forth to the trash can to throw things away.  In other great news, Ken came home from work the other night and made a comment about how great the bathroom looked  and how he felt guilty throwing his pants on the cabinet he always leaves them on!  The kids are also having a blast running around and having lots of space to play in. They keep "finding" things they didn't know they had because they are finally putting them in the right places.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Staying active is important, especially with a desk job.
2. A morning without tears?  Well, that would be nice!
3. The very thought of cleaning makes me tired. But I'm doing it anyway!!
4. Life is so beautiful.
5. I grew up in Garland, Texas and Radford, Virginia.
6. My dad's spaghetti was my most memorable meal.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing at home, tomorrow my plans include not much of anything and Sunday, I want to go to Mass with my family!

Clink the picture below if you want to play along!

Menu Check-In

We started out our new menu system last night. I really enjoy already knowing what I'll be making when I get home in the evenings. We are also debuting a new cleaning system at the same time (these are my "mid-year resolutions"!!) so I had the kids get started on their bedroom while I got dinner going.

The menu said beans and rice, so I had cooked some rice in the rice cooker that morning and had Ken put it in the fridge. I had a recipe that I looked at, but didn't really follow, but dinner turned out really good, so I want to write down what I did do so I can do it again! Please note that I tend to not measure things when cooking, so these are my guess-timates.

Meatless Monday: Beans and Rice

Prepare your favorite rice ahead of time. I cooked two cups.

In your large saute pan, melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter. Add about 1/4 cup chopped onion, one chopped bell pepper, and one chopped clove of garlic.  Saute until pepper and onions are translucent (or as long as it takes to go get the kids started on stripping their beds).

Add 2 cans of beans (undrained) and a bullion cube. I used kidney beans and great Northern beans, mainly because that's what I had. Also when I think of "beans and rice" I always think of kidney beans. As a lucky kind of coincidence, when Henry saw the Northern beans he got a huge smile on his face and said, "Mommy! These are my most favorite kind of beans ever!!"  As for the bullion, I used chicken.  My goal isn't really a vegetarian meal, just a general meatless-ness.  If you want vegetarian, use vegetable broth. Put a lid on it and let it simmer on low for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, go finish helping the kids strip the beds and put new sheets on them*.  Grumble and groan repeatedly about what a pain-in-the-@$$ bunk beds are!

Next I added in the cooked rice. I didn't add all of it initially because it didn't all fit in the pan.  I just added as much as would fit and stirred it around. I let this sit long enough to pull Benjamin off the top bunk and set the table.

I served the beans and rice (straight out of the pan, of course) with applesauce and cherry tomatoes.  Frances and Henry LOVED it. Benjamin ate the rice and applesauce, but wouldn't touch the beans and tomatoes.  He's not been eating real well lately, so I didn't take it personally.

Ken wasn't home, so we had a good bit of leftovers. When I put them away, I just added in the rice that hadn't fit in the pan earlier. I also added "Beans and Rice" to the menu print out on Sunday where it says "leftovers."  Hopefully that will help me remember what is in the fridge, so nothing goes to waste.

Two other notes: There is a lot of space at the bottom of the menu page when I printed it out. Since this is our trial period, I have been taking notes in that space.  I also made a list of all the fruits and veggies that need to be eaten so we can be sure to use them.

* When I make Frances' bed, I double it up, meaning that on top of the mattress I put a vinyl mattress pad, then a fitted sheet, then another vinyl fitted sheet and a fun fitted sheet. Then comes the tops sheet, blanket and quilt.  Next time her sheets need to be changed, all she has to do it take off the top layer and add the corresponding top sheet.  It just makes sense to me to do it twice one time and save time the second.

My Morning Captcha

Nowadays when you try to interact with websites you end up getting a "captcha" where you have to prove that you are a human and not some robot trying to spam the website with your comments.
Well, I have a different type of captcha that I have to deal with every morning. Just to prove that I am awake and functioning, I guess!
It goes like this:

Benjamin: Mommy! *mumble mumble* ticky!
Me: Are you stinky, Benjamin?
B: NO!! *mumble mumble* ticky!
Me: Oh! Sticky?  Are your fingers sticky?
B: Mommy!!  *mumble mumble* ticky!
Me: Your marble?  Is your marble sticky?
B: mmm-hmm
Me: Oh, OK. Thank you for telling me.

Repeat next morning with more toddler-speak. The longer it takes me to figure out what he is saying, the louder and more aggravated he gets. I love having kids with large vocabularies, but sometimes that makes translating kinda difficult!