Cooking

Here's some pictures of what the boy and I have been cooking (but none of the boy...just fyi in case you want to stop reading now...).  We are trying to make as many meals dairy free as possible so that I'm not having to make 2 meals each night.  Did you know dairy is everywhere in processed foods?  This means we've also been experimenting with making things ourselves, plus cooking with new foods.  Stressful and exciting at the same time!

Homemade red pepper hummus minus the tahini paste (haven't tried nuts yet but Cole isn't a big hummus fan) 

 Kale chips.  Ok.  If you like bitter then you'd like these.  Going to try cooking a different way next time.

 Roasted carrots.  Yumm-o.

 Roasted red peppers.  Tasty alone but better in hummus.

Mickey Mouse flax seed pancakes made with rice milk.  Sounds yummy right?  Actually they were good but Cole isn't a fan of bready products so Russell and I ate them with some new maple syrup we bought:)

Pancake batter strewn about the kitchen.  Example of why 2 year olds make poor sous chefs!

Naked chef

Ok, so he's not really naked, he's just giving some big boy underwear a whirl while making dumplings!  I have a few more cooking posts to follow but this one has inspired me to make him an apron for Christmas (take note of the flour that is not on the cabinet or bowl)...

Wordless Wednesday

Can you say dry?

Cole has a cow obsession.  He can find a cow anywhere, in a pasture on the side of the road and even tiny ones on cartons of sour cream at HEB.  He loves watching John Wayne and going to the country to see the cows in person.  We try to go out there a couple times a month and will go more once the weather isn't quite so hot.  It's really depressing for us adults though as getting away from the watered lawns shows how bad the drought really is.  Tanks are shrinking, the ground has huge cracks and the vegetation is brown and crispy.  Hopefully all the prayers for rain will be answered soon!

Here's one of the cows trying to beat the heat in the shade.

Pop-pa and urban cowboy with his cool shades.

My two handsome boys!

Cole's version of beating the heat:)

Random picture catch up

I have alot of random pictures to share and not enough to make individual blog posts so here is one long post of pictures....

I love my Daddy and I want to grow up and be just like him!

I love babies, especially our friend's baby A!  Too bad Mama and Dada say I'm going to be an only child (for now!)

I love spaghetti and Mama learned the hard way that white t-shirts do not love tomato sauce (let's just say that's a play at home shirt now despite me going all out Martha Stewart on it and treating it with a full arsenal of products)

I love baths, by myself!  (Cole and his friend D taking a bath after getting hair cuts.  I could hardly get them both in the picture because they were sitting so far apart from each other....it's like they thought the other one had cooties (spelling?) or something!)

I love to read!  Favorite books are any that includes cows.  After I finish reading, I close the book and say "Amen".

I love to help!  Whether it be dusting, sweeping, putting up dishes, walking the dog or helping Aunt Melissa blow out here birthday candles, I am a big helper:)

Worm hunt

Cole watches TV.  There, I said it.  Back when I was a parenting expert (before I had a kid), I swore I wouldn't let my children watch much, if any, TV.  Given, most of the time we "watch" TV is when we are playing and it is on in the background and not being watched.  When we do watch, it is usually something educational or John Wayne (cows and horseys) so we are expanding our brains during the heat of the day when outside play is out of the question.  One educational show I like on PBS is Wild Kratts that shows animals, including earth worms.  After that show, we decided to go on a worm hunt....

Looking for worms in our worm hunting boots...

Stealing the worm Mama found.  Sadly my freakishly small hands aren't much bigger than his!

Playing with the worm on the water table, being oh so careful and focused.

Taking the worm for a ride on the lawnmower...

Putting the worm back in the ground to go to it's home.  I think that worm was tramautized and told all the other worms as we haven't found another since!

How to eat oatmeal

First you have your mama (or dada) make some yummy steel cut oatmeal on the stove.  Once it cools, you take a big spoon and proceed as follows:

 Lick the oatmeal off the spoon with your tongue.

 After realizing this is a slow approach, stick as much of the spoon in your mouth as possible to consume as much oatmeal in one bite.

  

Use your hand to catch any oatmeal dripping off the spoon.

Never wasteful, you lick the oatmeal off each finger or...

you can just lick all your fingers at one time to go the whole energy saving route again. 

Happy cooking and eating!