In Season Fruits and Veggies

In order to get the best deal for produce I shop for in season fruits and vegetables.Not only are they cheaper but they taste better. A tomato in February does not taste as good as an August tomato no matter what you do. That being said, I live in Michigan and we can have harsh winters (2011 excluded). I set out to find what types of produce were in season from December to March and was a bit surprised at the list. I thought the list was going to be short, but I found many things I could work with.


 Fruits
Apples
Clementines
Grapefruit
Kiwi
Kumquats
Lemons
Mandarins
Oranges (navel)
Persimmons
Pommelos (in the grapefruit family)
Tangerines

Veggies
Beets
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Collard Greens
Escarole
Horseradish
Fennel
Kale
Leeks
Kohlrabi
Mushrooms
Onions
Potatoes
Parsnips
Radishes (large varieties)
Rapini (a bit like broccoli)
Rutabagas
Spinach
Jerusalem artichokes
Sweet Potatoes
Turnips
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash

That is quite a lot to choose from!! Now not all are grown in Michigan but they are grown in the US. This list should provide you with fresher tasting and cheaper produce because it doesn't have to travel as far in a truck. 

Need ideas on how to get your little ones (and maybe big guys too) to eat these fruits and veggies? I am pretty sure The Losing It Boys would try anything as long as they could dip it in something. Hummus, salsa, and ranch dressing all lend to carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower.

We cook and puree up squash to add to mac and cheese or spread thin on a tortilla and add some cheddar to make a quesadilla. Puree sweet potato can be substituted for the liquid in your favorite pancake mix/recipe. Many of the greens can be added to frozen berries for a green monster smoothie.

Do you have any recipes using anything from the above list? Please share in the comments below, we would love to hear them.

Pumpkin, The Taste Of Fall

Those little boys are eating what is left of some yummy pumpkin spice muffins. This time of year has Losing It Daddy jumping for joy because he has a love for pumpkin pie that causes him to act like a kid on Christmas morning. I have really only made pumpkin pie before but with Pinterest I have discovered there is so much more you can do with pumpkin to extend the taste of fall.

If you want the family secret recipe for pumpkin pie I will share with you how I learned it. Our first Thanksgiving with Losing It Big, he had the chicken pox. I was so disappointed because it is a family tradition to eat Grandpa Arch's homemade pumpkin pie as soon as you can start eating solid foods. Lets face it, other than being a bit sweeter, the inside of the pie isn't much different from baby food. I didn't want my baby to miss out on this tradition even though we would be celebrating at our house. I called her up to get her extra special recipe, because grandma always makes the best stuff. She started to laugh when I asked if she would share. Then she calmly stated : "yes, go to the store and get a can of Libby's pureed pumpkin, look on the back and my recipe is published". All these years I was thinking it was a family secret that was passed down through generations and it was on the back of the can. She did note to get the puree pumpkin and not the pie pumpkin so you can add your own amount of spices. The best pie shell recipes I have found contain vinegar. It makes a light fluffy crust. 

I have made this pie for years at Thanksgiving and Losing It Daddy's birthday in May, but this year we branched out and tried some new things with pumpkin. Let me just tell you they are really yummy. I may just have to cook up the kids jack-o-laterns next year to keep us in great pumpkin supply.

Here are some recipes that I have found that we really enjoy.
Pumpkin Dump Cake
Pumpkin Spice Pancakes
Pumpkin French Toast
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cups
Pumpkin Sage Soup
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chili
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

To make the pumpkin spice muffins those adorable boys are enjoying:

Pumpkin Spice Muffins 

1 boxed spice cake mix

1 small can of pumpkin puree 15 ounce

**MAKES 48 mini  cupcakes**

I made large ones.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix together cake mix and canned pumpkin. It is best to use a mixer for about 2 minutes on medium speed to get fluffier cupcakes.

Put in a muffin tin with liners. Batter is dense and does not rise much so these can be filled to the top.

Bake for 18 min until a toothpick inserted comes out clean!
If you can resist long enough you can freeze them. They taste better fully cooled, brings out the spice flavor. 
 Freeze them for 3 months. To enjoy get out of freezer and microwave for 1 min or just let them thaw the night before on the counter.

Thanksgiving Leftovers - Enjoy them well into January

Thanksgiving is a holiday to spend time with your family, be thankful for what you have and enjoy a large meal full of the tastes of the fall season. If your family is like mine, you have enough food for 30 when you are only feeding 10. That means a lot of food is leftover. We can only eat so much turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce before it gets old. To make the winter holidays a breeze with meals already prepared in the freezer we use some of the leftovers to transform them into other meals.

If you have a lot or a little leftover from Thanksgiving why not take some time and make some additional meals that you can store in your freezer all the way to January. We are a family of 5 and when I create meals I pack them in serving sizes of 6. If you are a single college student, retired couple, or family of 10, you can pack these meals in pre-portioned sizes.

For some recipes we have tried and enjoy, click on the links below:

Turkey, Bacon and Swiss Sandwiches
Turkey Noodle Casserole
Turkey Shepherds Pie
Turkey Corn Chowder
Turkey Pot Pies 
Turkey Pockets
Chicken Stuffing Bake
Crockpot Cranberry Chicken
Vegan Pistachio - Cranberry "chicken"
Butternut Squash Lasagna
Cranberry Muffins
Crockpot Cranberry Apple Porkloin
Cranberry Sauce Scones
Cranberry Banana Bread

Feel free to substitute any thing in these recipes for a homemade items. You can make your own Cream of "something" soup, biscuits, and stuffing (made in the crock pot and could be gluten free with rice bread)



So gather the family and make a few dishes to enjoy later on in the season.  Save yourself some stress of trying to figure out what you will eat on those busy winter holiday nights.

Basment Play Area

Note: This is mostly for my family as this is a HUGE Christmas present for the boys. I wanted a place I could show all the photos we are using for inspiration and give people ideas on what they can add to the project. We want to have all the large stuff set up before Christmas so the boys can go downstairs and see it all put together on Christmas morning. I am going to wrap up some slippers for them to put on and take them downstairs (with someone video tapping their reaction). We have a small house and not a lot of room for the boys to play but they are at the age where imagination type play is big. My middle son loves to pretend to cook and will make anything into a kitchen. My oldest loves dress up and arts/crafts. My youngest likes to be a little mommy helper. I will update how this project is going over the next few weeks. Right now we are still planning and cleaning up the storage purpose the basement currently has.

The area under the stairs will be a play house. I would like the outside to look like this:

I will purchase the supplies but my brother, Shawn will be doing the construction Thanksgiving weekend.

Inside we will be putting in a kitchen (purchased already) but could use:

Table and chairs

Storage boxes for trains, potato heads, cars, little people, and various other toys (we have shelves already in the “room”)

Toys cleaning items (vacuum, broom, mop, duster, etc)

Doll bed, high chair, etc (Little boy loves his bear and baby dolls)

Watering can and other “garden tools” for outside

We will be putting carpet inside the home and green astro-turf outside. (Still need to get though)

Next we will have a store. Purchased already are the cash register, shopping cart and food. We have the flooring (linoleum leftovers). I am looking at this for the inspiration:

Needed:

I would need two bookcases (one 3-4 feet and one 2 feet) also a top of some sort. Even just a small banner would work.

Baskets would be nice to hold the food.

We would also like to have a school/art area.

  I have the flooring (a bright foam style mat) and most of storage “boxes” I will be using recycled items. We have lots of plastic jars and baby wipe containers we can label and would look cute. I mostly need the shelving unit and possibly chairs. We are also going to be putting this:

in the area. It is already being worked on for completion.

 We also have a lot of stuffed animals so this is being made as well:

I have a corner tv unit that I am going to turn into a dress up area like this:

I have been getting stuff 90% off around Halloween and also saving hats and other things I find at the dollar store. We have fireman and train engineer, not to mention super hero stuff. 

There will be a sectioned off part for me and all my crafts. It will be a half wall so I can see what the boys are doing and Riley will be painting a village scene on it. I also will have a small fence to put up around the water heater and furnace.

Sign Language Helped Find Our Son's Voice

When our oldest son, Jack, was 18 months old he made his first sound. He was playing and made a noise that sounded exactly like up, but until this point in his life he made no attempt to make noise or gesture to get what he wanted. He was a very content child who would either go get what he needed or go without. I was concerned about this but when I expressed this to friends and family, most would ease my fears by saying "so and so's child didn't talk until he was 3" or "boys don't talk until later in life". While their statements made some sense, it still bothered me he didn't try to communicate with us at all. He was social and wouldn't mind being held by people, even strangers, but he wouldn't follow simple requests, answer to his name or even point to something he wanted.

At his 18 month well baby check-up I mentioned something to the doctor about him falling short of some communication milestones. She agreed that he was pretty behind and suggested some tests to see if hearing was the issue. We went to a few places and all agreed he had no issues with his hearing. Our doctor then pointed us in the direction of Early On.

Early On is a extension of the Michigan school system and will come to your home to assess your child's development. Children develop at different times but they can offer some resources to help parents if a child is not meeting those milestones. First they will send someone to assess the child by playing everyday games (peek-a-boo, find the object, etc). They will also ask some question about your family history and concerns of your child's development. After our evaluation, Early On enrolled our son into an at home speech therapy session each week. From age 21 months - 2 1/2 years we had speech for 30 minutes, 2 times a week.

In addition to the outside help, my husband and I started teaching ourselves sign language. We would talk to Jack by signing and using the word and he started to mimic us. He didn't do the sign perfect or say the word but he would try to do the same thing we were doing. My husband was always on youtube looking up "ASL Easter" or "ASL monkey" when we didn't know the sign for something we were trying to explain to our child. We had books, printouts from Early On and flash cards but seeing it done was so much better for us to retain the word to use when talking.

I also stumbled upon Signing Time one morning. It is a show where a woman signs a word, has children signing the word and uses a song so you can remember the word. The music was something that held Jack's attention the most and I feel a great asset for myself learning to sign. Jack loved seeing the kids and the songs, but it really stuck with me when she explained why a sign looked the way it did. I will admit the songs were catchy too.

Jack started going to school at 2 1/2 where he had a paraprofessional (someone who assists a special education teacher) in his classroom who would sign. I think this was the turning point for him. Seeing someone outside his home signing and being a bit older, Jack was signing 20 - 30 words. He still would not say a whole word but he would make sounds when he was signing. One day while he was playing, I saw his little fingers touch together and heard a faint "mo". He signed the word more and was trying to say it. It was the first time I saw him use a sound and I knew he knew what it meant. From that point on he signed and his audible communication grew by leaps and bounds.

Jack is now almost 5 and talks up a storm. He will still struggle with common sounds and words. This is very frustrating to him but if you ask him to say what he wants to say a different way he can usually get his point across. Signing is still in his life but not a much as it once was. We will use it when we are in large (noisy) groups and I need him to understand me or he needs to tell me something.

I don't feel signing delayed my child's speech but I know it helped him find his voice.I am also very grateful for Early On for stepping in and giving our family the resources to help our son. If you feel your child is not reaching their milestones, please contact :

Early On of Michigan

Email: eoreferral@edzone.net
Toll Free: 1-800-EarlyOn (1-800-327-5966)
TTY: (517)668-2505
Fax: (517)668-0446
Address: 13109 Schavey Road, Suite 4 DeWitt, MI 48820

You can find Signing Time on PBS Sunday morning at 6:30 or at your local library. They also have a  Signing Time facebook page.

Halloween candy, freezer cooking and celebrating 80 years!

This past week saw a lot of food challenges. I rose up to meet some and fell so far from goal on others.

Lets start on Wednesday October 31st. Oh Halloween how you taunt me with your delicious fun size candy bars. I have three wonderful little ones so just not having it in my house is not an option. My dad will be quick to remind everyone that Halloween is for little kids and to let them be little. Not to say we don't have some rules about trick or treating.

Rule 1 - NO candy until we get home and mom/dad have a chance to inspect it. This is not a rule that will ever get bent, even though it would probably never happen that our kids will get a piece that could cause them harm. Sometimes I have to remove a piece that for whatever reason is not fully wrapped. This usually is the fault of quick manufacturing. Sometimes I pull candies that the kids could choke on or are really bad for their teeth. We do not have jolly ranchers or caramel suckers for this reason.

Rule 2 - All candy goes into the communal bucket. I know part of the fun is the trading but I was always the kid that could convince someone that a tootsie roll was a fair trade for a Resses (it is not). It would cause fights when the trade was over and my siblings saw that the tiny tootsie roll was just traded for a larger candy. Plus the boys are young and just see the candy and don't care about the brands.

Rule 3 - If we collect more than what can fit in the bucket, it is in the trash. I know I could donate it to organizations but I also know it will sit in my house a few more days and I will eat it. It is best to just go in the trash and take the trash out immediately.  I do this when the boys are in bed because they are still too little to understand why I have to do it this way.

Rule 4- One piece of candy a day, even on Halloween night. This is a rule that Losing It Daddy breaks but so far I have been very good at it. I have even gone a few days without anything. The boys love to choose their candy and we take turns on who picks first. We have candy choosing time right after Losing It Big gets home from school along with a piece of fruit or carrot sticks.

 Losing It Big was a fireman, Losing It Middle was Elmo and Losing It Little was part of a chicken. I got him to wear the chicken costume for 1 min, this picture. Then he would only wear the legs. Every year this has happened (Big and Middle have also had this costume) and every year on November 1st, the go and put the whole thing on themselves. I will never understand it and just remember my dad saying, "it is for the kids". So I just laugh and take my half a chicken trick or treating.

I was a runner. I thought I would wear a piece of each race that proved to be meaningful to me. I wore my headband from the color run I did with my brother, the color run bib I did barefoot (I did 2 races), the shirt from the cheesetown challenge, socks from Saint Patricks 5K, metal from mud run I ran with my sister and the new pants I got right after the trail run I did, since my old ones were falling off me. It made me feel strong and proud of all that I have done this year. I have to hang up my shoes for a few races because we should be saving our money for other things. This doesn't mean I am out though. I really feel I will be able to run all of St Patty's in 2013. I just have to remember to train for it.



On Saturday I spent the morning with some lovely women. I am a Great Lake Bay Mom and was asked to do a mini freezer cooking session with a few of the other moms. It was a great morning where we shared cooking tips and got to know one another a bit better. Plus we made some food. It was a learning experience for me since I am usually by myself cooking, so I had to remember to explain what I was doing. I started out slow but then was able to start to delegate for a few things. We made 2 breakfast items and 4 dinners:
Sausuage Cheese Muffins
Banana Bread
Apple Cherry Pork Tenderloin
Spicy Honey Chicken Breasts (we almost always sub breasts for other cuts of meats)
Taco Pasta
Breaded Chicken Breasts

*the banana bread was made to the point of batter and then placed in pans. When ready to cook, thaw and bake for 45 minutes.

That evening I traveled to New Lothrup to celebrate my grandfathers 80th birthday. It was at a family bar style restaurant and I choose (quickly) a burger and fries. I arrived late and just picked the first thing that looked good. When it was time for cake I decided not to have any because of the burger. I didn't really feel all that bad about it, and I LOVE cake. I actually didn't put much thought into it until I was driving home. I stopped for something to drink at a gas station and saw some "fruit" pies. For a brief moment I thought about getting one because I was so good at not having cake. Then I shook my head and thought about how silly that was. Why would I 'reward' my choice by making an even worse choice. So I ended the night with no sugary treats. YAY ME!!!