Okay, this is so yummy. I like salads, as a general rule, but lately I have been uninspired. This might have to do with my attempt to eat those salads-in-a-bag that the local grocery chain sells. They always taste yucky to me. I hate it when the greens get slimy. Plus, you really have to eat the whole thing as soon as you open it, because they don’t keep well at all afterward. But I digress.

The salad I’ve enjoyed for lunch for the past two days goes like this: Baby spinach, topped with diced apple, feta cheese, homemade granola, and a few craisins. Splash it all with Newman’s Own Lighten Up Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette. I have to restrain myself from licking the bowl. But maybe that is too much information.

The photo makes it look like it’s mainly toppings with about 4 little leaves of spinach. Be not deceived; there’s half a bag of the iron-laden stuff in there. I like spinach.

Fluff/Jelly

Serving Size: 18g/20g

Calories: 60/50

Fat: 0g/0g

Sugars: 9g/10g

Protein: 0g/0g

Anything else good? no/no

Bring on the fluffernutters!! Actually, even as I type this, I am eating a sandwich consisting of multi-grain bread, organic peanut butter, and Fluff. And the kids are eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. And we won’t even discuss the nutritional implications of that.

This recipe comes from a book called Healing Foods by Miriam Polunin, published by DK in 1999. I utterly love this salsa. So does Brian (”It’s The Bomb”). The kids…well, too many textures in there for them. They prefer their food to be uncomplex and fairly bland. This is not. Plus, this has little flecks of actual green stuff, which always turns them off immediately. If I had a good photo of it, I would post it here because this salsa is beautifully colorful.

Pineapple Salsa

• 1/4 lb fresh pineapple, finely diced
• 2 tbsp finely chopped red pepper
• 1 tsp finely chopped green chili pepper (I use the canned kind.)
• 3 tsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tsp chopped fresh mint (Gannon takes care of the mint in a pot on the windowsill.)
• 1 tbsp lime or lemon juice

In a serving bowl, combine all the ingredients. Allow the flavors to blend for at least 10 minutes before serving. Chill,covered, until ready to serve and eat within 2 days. Serve at room temperature.

Here’s an idea for presenting the resurrection story to your children in a different way.

Resurrection Cookies is a recipe that incorporates biblical instruction and hands-on learning. This household may give it a try, after the antibiotics kick in.

Here’s my newest creation. I’m attempting to retool some of my favorite recipes to make them healthier. For the basis of these muffins, I used my favorite banana bread recipe from one of those community cookbooks places use for fundraising (this one was from the Somerset Manor, a nursing home in Bingham, Maine). I tweaked it significantly, and it tastes pretty much nothing like the original. Still yummy though. Even Brian likes them. Acadia ate 4 in a row. Gannon despises them. I’ll eat his.

	Honey Banana Oat Muffins
Ingredients 1/3 cup applesauce 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup honey 2 large eggs, beaten 3 ripe bananas, mashed well 1/2 cup white flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/4 cup old fashioned oats 1/4 cup steel cut oats 1 tsp baking soda pinch of salt
	Fat: 0.7g Carbohydrates: 16.1g Calories:73.8 Protein: 1.8g

Cream applesauce and sugar. Add honey, eggs, and bananas. In another mixing bowl, combine flours, oats, baking soda, and salt. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mixing till moistened. Spoon into mini muffin pans and bake 17-20 minutes at 350.

Number of Servings: 30 mini muffins

Recipe calculation thanks to SparkRecipes.

I love magazines.

I hate magazines.

What a pain to have years’ worth of Family Fun, Parenting, Child, Cottage Living, and the like in boxes, piles, or on shelves. Who has room for that kind of thing? And how can you find anything in there anyway? “Hmm…didn’t I see a great idea for my boy’s bedroom curtains…somewhere…sometime….?” But those monthly periodicals often contain great ideas within their pages. So what to do?

Rip ‘em out.

I have a binder (another binder idea) that I have dubbed The Mom Book. In it I save and organize all the articles, columns, and even ads that inspire me. Mostly they have to do with the kids or the house, which is why I called it The Mom Book. When I find a neat color scheme, I stick it in there (I use those slide-in page holders). If I see a great toy ad, it goes in there too. Recipes go in a different binder, unless it’s more of a nutritional essay. I have an article about raising an introverted child, one on convenient exercises for mothers, and one on postpartum depression. Craft and holiday ideas go in there too.

When I’ve pillaged everything I like from the magazine, I toss it in the trash recycle it get it out of my house. This was a big step for me, since I am a packratesque teacher who sees a future use for everything (I save those plastic containers mushrooms come in). But the clutter finally got to me! So there you have it.

This post inspired by Rocks In My Dryer’s Works For Me Wednesday posts.

One of my favorite blogs (”Rocks In My Dryer” is the title…I was hooked immediately) hosts a weekly blog carnival of sorts. This week’s topic is the Kitchen. Here’s my tip:

I’ve gone through my cookbooks and photocopied my often-used recipes and organized them in a binder. I use the slide-in plastic pages to keep them from getting goopy from food and so that I don’t have to deal with punching hold in the papers. The result is that I don’t have to flip through pages and pages of recipes I never use just to find one I need to pork chops, or whatever. It’s nice to have them all in one place. When I want to try something new, my books are still available.

Maybe this isn’t such a novel idea, but it’s a great tool for me. I once started doing this by hand onto those little index cards, but whoa, was that tedious. The copier is great. I suppose if you had to drag your library to Kinko’s or something it might be a pain, but we’ve got one here in the house, and I take full advantage of it!

Not so “natural”, but oh well.

• cake mix, any flavor
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• nuts, chocolate chips, whatever else you want in them
• frosting or colored sugar if desired

Stir it all together. You now have a stiff dough, which can be used for making a variety of cookies. Some I have tried:

1. Valentine cookies: use strawberry cake mix, form teaspoon-sized balls. Roll some in coarse pink sugar and leave some plain. After they’ve cooled, frost the plain ones with white frosting and sprinkle with red sugar.
2. Christmas cookies: use chocolate cake mix. Press small balls of dough into mini muffin wells. When the edges are set, take them out of the oven and press red- and green-swirled chips into their centers. Let them cool before taking them out of the pan.
3. PMS chocolate chocolate chip: use a chocolate cake mix (the kind with pudding!) and stir in 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips. Try not to eat all the dough before you bake them.

Unless otherwise noted, bake them on an ungreased, shiny cookie sheet for 10-14 minutes at 350 degrees. I like these cookies because I almost always have the ingredients on hand, thanks to 10/$10 sales on mixes at the grocery store, and it lets me focus my cookie-making energy on making them look impressive, instead of just in the forming of the dough. (It takes me about six times to read each step of a recipe before I get it right. Even then there’s no guarantee, and by the time I get to the creative part I am exhausted.)

Brian’s often at rehearsal on Wednesday nights (stalkers, take note) and so it’s just the three of us for dinner. For some reason, I have zero motivation to prepare a healthy meal on nights like this. Tonight it was pancakes. For my special recipe, refer to the Bisquick box and add a bit more milk. To go hog wild, sprinkle cinnamon in the batter or add some mini chocolate chips.

I was feeling a little guilty about the lack of nutrition when my lovely neighbor poked her head in to ask for some vegetable oil. To my happiness, she said they were having pancakes too (with the addition of hash browns and I don’t know what else–I didn’t ask, being overcome by the idea of pancakes).

During dinner I was inspired to add a little fiber to the meal, so I made popcorn and the three of us watched Cinderella.

Isn’t that just fun to say?

Mashing to oblivion any cultural significance, here’s a recipe for a quick lunch that’s pretty healthy. I followed the recipe exactly as I made lunch this afternoon for the kids. Which, to those who know me well, indicates the fact that I made it up as I went along.

Pizzadillas

flour tortillas, 2 per pizzadilla
tomato pizza sauce
shredded pizza blend cheese

On medium/high heat, toast 1 flour tortilla in a heavy frying pan. Spread a tablespoon or two of sauce on the tortilla. Sprinkle cheese over that, and top with another tortilla. After a few minutes the bottom will be getting crispy. Carefully flip it over and toast the other side. (If you’re not careful and if the cheese isn’t quite melted, you’ll spray cheese all over the place.) When it’s nice and toasty on that side, take it out and cut it up. You can serve it as it is, or with some sauce for dipping.

I suppose one could toss in last night’s chopped broccoli or other leftovers. I didn’t do that. I was cooking for my fussy eaters, who were actually so fussy and this recipe was so quick that I had made two of these before they had gotten out the words that they wanted peanut butter and jelly instead. Oh well. More for me.

This is a good recipe for when you’ve been teaching all morning and just don’t feel like thinking up a good lunch. In our house, we pretty much always have the ingredients on hand. Now, if my kids chose to eat it, that would work out even better. Normally I would not make them a different meal, but today it was not worth the effort! Some days are like that.