Our playtime checklist for 2012

It seems that sometimes I come across approximately one million things to do with the Peanut

and other days I completely draw a blank.

Orange County is packed with things to do.  Every day.  All kinds of things!

This year I've come up with 10 things that we would like to do as a family.

You noticed that I said I've come up with things we would like to do.

It's my job as a wife and mother to tell B the things that he really wants to do with us

 but just didn't know it yet.

Find my list HERE, maybe we can plan a trip together!

#4 / 52 Food Adventures: Veggie Chips

Although I never intended for this to be a challenge on cooking,

 we just haven't tried anything new at the restaurants we've been to.

We've been focusing on using all the gorgeous fruits and veggies from our CSA.

We've now decided that we're going to try and made everything into chips.

Kale chips, which aren't pictured, are very popular in our house.

Everyone likes them, even the Peanut.

Although, I'm pretty sure Peanut likes them because

 he thinks he's getting away with eating crunchy paper.

May I also say that I had to overcome my fear of the mandolin for this weeks adventure.

My mom broke out her fancy professional one and I concentrated hard on keeping all my fingertips and knuckles because, believe me, I've seen a lot of people lose both on this thing.

I tried beet chips and butternut squash chips and liked them both with a few adjustments.

The beet chips were really tasty.  I think I would just use a oil spray on the cookie sheet and then a light spray over top instead of tossing in oil.

The butternut squash recipe was a little hit and miss but that was mainly because I sliced all of my squash too thin.  I think next time I would do them thicker and maybe lower the temp a bit.

I thought I would try and get a pretty picture of my beet chips.

I took out all my bestest chips and stacked them up,
put a cutting board behind to eliminate all the background "noise"
and right as I picked up my camera it fell on my pretty posed chips.

WHACK!



Then I quickly brushed the crumbs into my hand and shoved them in my mouth.

What did you try this week?

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the first day of the lunar new year and

this year marks the Year of the Dragon!

It's cold and rainy today and we don't have much planned

so we started off the day with a big breakfast, some cuddles on the couch and 

a special book on Chinese New Year.

There are flaps, pop-ups, textures, scratch and sniff and lots of information given in the form of a fun story.  Lenny and Lili and their family prepare for the new year by sweeping our the old year and welcoming the new,decorating with oranges and tangerines (that you can smell),

making long noodles and lots more.

My favorite is when the family sits to eat dim sum

and you can lift the flaps to see what they are eating!

Steamed Buns!  Spare Ribs!  Pork Dumplings!

I'm thinking about adding in the Chinese names for the food too.

Next year we'll plan for some decorations and celebrations.

Are you celebrating today?

Mia's Bee Birthday

 

Miss Mia turned 1 year old in December but I haven't had the time to post about it until now.

So you've been missing out on this amazing party that her mama Joanne (and her husband Mike) put together.

You can imagine how excited I was to find out that it was a Bee theme.

Despite the fact that this particular day there were freakishly strong Santa Ana winds tearing through Orange County, the party was picture perfect and tons of fun.

The kids had little bumble bee snacks made from snack bags and painted clothespins.
There were antennas for all the little bees to wear as well.



This little bee was all over the place.
If Auntie Jen hadn't been there watching out I never would have been able to snap any pictures.



Is this not the cutest, most creative thing ever?
Yep, they put this together.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of any of the kids in it because I think Peanut was busy putting rocks and dirt in his mouth, but really, this is one of those ideas that will spread like wildfire.



Another amazing game they put together is the honeycomb hunt.

Each child was able to break through the honeycomb to grab their prizes.

I can only imagine how long they worked on creating all these things.



Of course I was immediately drawn to the dessert table, as always.

Not pictures was another table full of awesome Vietnamese food as well as hamburgers, hot dogs and salads.  I had some of everything and Peanut had his first egg roll.

The dessert table had everything from the amazing beehive cake and cupcakes to rice crispy treats, cookies, kettle corn and oreo truffles.

Isn't that cake amazing?!

I also always love looking at the photos of baby's first year.
It's incredible how much they change, every day you hit a new milestone.

Let's all discuss this tutu.  Holy yellow fluff.
This is why I need to have a baby girl.
Or maybe why I don't need to have a baby girl.

She is the cutest little thing ever!
She takes after her mom, obviously.



As party favors the kids were given age appropriate bee books.

Peanut absolutely loves his Buzz-Buzz Busy Bees book, complex with 3D bees.



He was super excited about this cluster of balloons.

He wanted to take them all with us.
I wanted to take them with us too.  Who wouldn't want polka dot balloons?



Little Harlow was just loving the swing at the park,
while Peanut sat and covered himself in sand, which is all he really wants to do at parks anyway.



Thank you Joanne and Mike for a wonderful party and tons of fantastic ideas :)

Happy Birthday Mia!

#3 / 52 Food Adventures: Drink Your Greens

We've been getting this gorgeous spinach in our CSA box lately.

It's not like the baby spinach we would get at the store and it has a great sweetness to it.

I knew right away that I wanted to try some of the smoothies I've been seeing all over Pinterest.

I tried 3 different smoothies and although they get an A for flavor, 

the appearance is obviously lacking.

This first one came out a weird color because it's a blend of spinach, banana and strawberries.

Green Berry Blend

1 cup packed spinach

1 cup strawberries

1 banana

1/2 cup apple juice

1/2 cup ice

Blend.

I really liked this and I've decided that you can't really taste the spinach at all.

Luckily Peanut will try anything, regardless of how it looks because my dad said my smoothie looked like something Shrek would drink.

Peanut seemed to like it just fine!

I'll be making this again.

Banana, Avocado, Strawberry Smoothie

2 medium bananas

1 small avocado

1 cup strawberries

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup ice

1 tbs honey or agave (optional)

Blend.

Taste your mixture and add the honey or agave if you need it.  

If your fruit is really sweet you might not.

I loved this one and Daniel seriously couldn't get enough of it.

If only I could get the boys to use a straw, this would all be so much easier.

Green Monster Spinach Smoothie was a fail that was entirely my fault because I lacked ingredients and it wasn't even blended enough resulting in weird chunks and pieces of leaves.

Chewing on your smoothie is weird.

If you try something new or come across some ideas, 

join the 52 Food Adventures Community Board on Pinterest!

Did you try anything new this week?

85°C Bakery Cafe, Irvine

Have you been to 85°C yet?  You know, that bakery with the long line out the door...

the one with trays and trays and trays of goodies to choose from.

From squid ink rolls to marbled taro bread to lemon pastries, this is the place to go for baked goods and great coffee.

If you haven't been there then put it on your checklist and check out my post about it HERE

Fall is here!

When we first moved way out here in the "wilderness" which is to say I'm 20 minutes away from

Huntington Beach where I grew up, but I'm 20 minutes into the wilderness I tell you.

Sure you may laugh at our OC wilderness but did you know that my friend Kelly and I were on a walk Tuesday and we saw vultures?!  

Big ugly vultures with scary, icky red hangy-skinned heads and they were eating a dead bird.

That, my friends, is wilderness.

Anyway, out here in the wilderness of South Orange County we have lots of trees, and trails,

and gorgeous parks, and did I mention trees?

Perhaps this isn't a big deal to you but did you know that some of our trees have 

leaves that change color?!

It's crazy, I know.

That first year I couldn't wait until the leaves changed during autumn.

Although it's still mostly green all year round I still love those streets where it seems like the seasons come alive.

Of course, these are Southern California trees and they didn't grow up with tree parents to mold and guide them and tell them that the leaves are supposed to change to gorgeous orange and red in the FALL!

Some did but we still have quite a few stragglers that are turning brilliant colors now.

These Orange County kids have been deprived of running through falling leaves

and jumping into piles in front of their houses.

The fact that it was 77°F doesn't help with my little fall fantasy.

So this daddy decided to take nature into his own hands and give these trees a little help.

Oh man, you should have seen these kids running around as the leaves fluttered around them.

Such a dad thing to do.

That man is halfway up that tree, shaken' it around.

Peanut is wondering what in the world is going on.