Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Lately I've been making these delicious banana muffins I found on a friends blog.  

This morning I was whipping up a double batch while the four boys were all upstairs in my bed watching Charlie Brown.  As the first tray was coming out of the oven Glenn came to the top of the stairs and yelled, "Do I smell something good?!"  I yelled back, "I don't know what you're talking about!"  He came running and found the muffins cooling on the counter.  He exclaimed, "Mom!  I just don't know how you do it!  You amaze me!"  While I know that making muffins on a Saturday morning does not Amazing make, there is NO way I was going to tell him that.  

He grabbed a few muffins and took off running.  I yelled, "DO NOT eat those in my BED!"  He ran back into the kitchen and said, "Don't worry mom.  It was just a victory lap!"  

With in seconds The other 3 boys were down here.  Max had the courtesy to carry Bennett down, so they could all enjoy some yummy, warm muffins.  The conversation we had over the muffins was super awesome!  It was all about what their best senses were.  Glenn said his best senses were smell and hearing.  Max said his was sight.  Harrison was too busy eating to say anything, and Bennett doesn't talk yet.  

This week Lily has been gone in Utah staying with Grandma Ritz, having all kinds of fun.  Jason saw this as the perfect opportunity to introduce Glenn and Max to the Superman Movies, as in Christopher Reeves.  Each night they watched more of the series.  My boys really liked Superman before.  Now they LOVE him, and all of his Super Human senses.

As a mother, I think it is pretty awesome what can come from making yummy muffins.

J-Dawg's

In Provo, UT, on the south end of BYU's campus is an amazing Hot Dog restaurant.  That's right!  I whole restaurant that sells only hot dogs!!!!  It started out as a hot dog stand opened and ran by a BYU business school graduate.  He developed his special sauce and scored the dogs then grills them.  The scored part opens up and hold onto the sauce.  They are DELICIOUS!  Last Summer when I was there I found he had moved from the stand into a building, and was bottling up and selling the special sauce!  I bought a huge bottle and came home to make our own J-Dawg's.  YUMMY! 

Lily eating her Watermelon and J-Dawg's.

Glenn LOVES J-Dawg's!

Harrison wanted a picture of him eating his DOG too!

Maxwell, scraping the watermelon off the rind.  He cannot waste any good parts!

Strawberry Fields Forever

My favorite way to mark the beginning of Summer is with Strawberries.  The Oregon strawberry season starts a week or two before the kids get out of school.  I like to wait for them to go with me. This year, with their help, we picked 22 pounds in 30 minutes.

We did a lot with he strawberries we got this year, but first, here are some pictures of the kids after picking.

Yes, Harrison did wear cowboy boots and cowboy hat to pick in.  I'm sure he was hot, but protected.

Bennett did great sitting in the stroller the whole time.  Towards the end he got a little fussy so I gave him two berries to hold - one for each hand.  He never ate them, just held them and squeezed them and got himself all jucified.  It was adorable!  He was so happy about it.

Balancing the berries.

Harrison had to copy the older kids.  I was TERRIFIED that he would drop the bowl full of berries.  He would NOT put the bowl down till I took a picture.  I took it as fast as I could so that the berries could return to safety.

Harrison's berries, safe and sound.  This is his bowl after I threw out all the little, baby, green berries that he loves to find.

The first thing we did, after cleaning them all, was make jam.  We got 10 pints and 10 1/2 pints.

Then, we made our favorite strawberry dessert to take to grandma's house.

With the leftover berries we made LOTS of homemade strawberry ice cream.  We used it to go with homemade berry cobbler (made with blackberry's, raspberry's and blueberry's we picked last year) for Glenn's family birthday dinner.

The next day, after Glenn's family birthday dinner, was the 4th of July.  Our friends made this DELICIOUS salad for the potluck barbecue.  It wasn't made with our strawberries, but it definitely fit in with our strawberry theme for the last week.

Spinning can help you be HAPPY!

On Wednesday night the kids were wired!  They had NO MORE SCHOOL!  It was their last day.  I pulled some leftovers out of the fridge and made these taquitos for dinner.  They were DELICIOUS!!!

While I was in the kitchen working, Harrison and Bennett were doing this....

And this....

This totally made my day!  However, they made up for it later on.  I put them to bed at 8 o'clock.  I went in their room at 9, because I noticed that their light was on.  Harrison was sitting up in bed wearing nothing but his graduation cap and underwear.  He was covered in the Cars bandaids, that I had splurged on for him, like they were stickers.  The most upsetting thing was that the room smelled very strongly of lavender! 

When he had snuck into the bathroom to get the bandaids he had also grabbed my expensive little bottle of lavender oil.  He then poured it all over this bed!  I told our friends, who were there visiting, that Harrison was very lucky they were there.  I couldn't kill him because there were too many witnesses!  I was REALLY upset. 

Over the next hour I calmed down and was even able to laugh pretty hard at the very hilarious image in my head, of Harrison sitting up in bed in his graduation cap covered in Cars Bandaids!!!  I am really mad at myself now for not being calm enough to take a picture! 

The best part is, the Lavender knocked those two boys out till 8 am the next day!

New Baby Makes me HAPPY!

One of my best friends had a new baby on May 4th.  YAY!  I gotta say, if you're not going to have a new baby then the next best thing is for a best friend, or sister to have one.  I LOVE getting to hold her, rub her head and smell her! 

Pictures of us in the hospital.  Myself, Baby Greta and the proud parents, Kevin and Alyssa.

Ten days after Greta was born we had a baby shower at my house.  This is the best way to have a shower!  Everyone got to come and hold the baby!  It was a very fun afternoon.  We ate yummy food, held the baby, caught up with old friends and played Pictionary! 

Party favors were capped acetate tubes filled with pink and light green Jelly Belly's and wrapped up in toole and ribbon.  They doubled as decorations, lined up across the mantle.  The balloon flowers hanging in the front window were made like this. (scroll down on the link)  Depending on the angle, the balloons kind of looked clusters of something else that fit into the whole theme of newborn suckling baby.

On the MENU - Banana Slush

Veggie Pizza

Strawberry Shortcake

Rainbow Jello

Brie en Croute

PBD's (little shortbread cookie sandwiches)

Chinese Chicken Salad



New Food Blog!!!

I did it!!  I am so proud!  I finally sat down and designed my food blog!

Here is the link to 'Lovin' from my Oven'. 

Be patient, there is a lot more to come.

Sunday's in our Home

Sunday's are a day that we really try to focus on our family.  We focus on keeping the Sabbath day Holy, in the traditional way.  We do not shop, or go out to eat.  We do not play sports, or watch sports.  We do watch some TV and movies, but are very choosy about that.  For example on Sunday evenings our family loves to watch America's Funniest Home Video's and Rick Steve's Europe on PBS.  Our kids really enjoy this.  Often we have a treat after a big Sunday Dinner.

We are always sure to go to church.

This last Sunday, on the way home from church, I noticed that Bennett was REALLY happy.

I took this video of him laughing.  At the end he turns his head and stops laughing because he noticed all his older siblings arrive home in daddy's car.  He was very happy to see them too!

Another something we sometimes do on Sunday's is make cards for family who live far away!  If you are related to us and live in Utah, Colorado or Australia, you might be getting one soon!

My kids love to bake on Sunday.  We often will make a treat to use in School Lunches for the week.  This last Sunday Max and Harrison really wanted to make a cake.  We made a white cake mix with egg whites instead of whole eggs, and some of our home canned applesauce instead of oil.

For the filling Max made some sugar free/ fat free strawberry creme pudding.

Harrison put the filling on and frosted it with fat free cool whip!  It was very light and delicious!

Super proud brothers.  Max got an apron for Christmas.  He has a few of his own cookbooks.  He loves to be in the kitchen helping me.  And it is obvious by this picture that Harrison needs an apron!

As a family, we named this cake, "Strawberry Trifle Cake."

YUMMY!

Bennett really liked the cake!

See?  I told you he really liked it!

The cake made him thirsty.

This is what happened when we took the glass away.  We are wondering if he really loves water, or really loves drinking from a glass like everyone else in the family.

He was so angry when we took the glass that he turned red, would shake and grunt and pretty much stop breathing!

It didn't help that we all sat around and laughed at him while dangling the glass in front of him!



Chicken Lo Mein for dinner

I LOVE this recipe.  It is so yummy.  This last time I made it, I added in zucchini.  It was a huge hit.  I wanted to share it.

       2 cubes chicken bullion     

 4 chicken breasts, cut into thin, bite size strips

1/4 cup soy sauce     4 teaspoons cornstarch

     1 Tablespoon oil     3 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon peeled, chopped ginger

2 cups thinly sliced cabbage

1 cup sliced celery

1 carrot, shredded or julienned    

2 zucchinis sliced and chopped in big chunks

10 oz. whole wheat spaghetti

1. Dissolve 2 cubes chicken bullion cubes into 2 cups boiling water.

2. Pour 1/2 cup of Broth into large skillet or wok.  (Let remaining liquid in saucepan cool.)  Cook 4 chicken breasts, cut into strips, in skillet.  Cook till done.  Remove chicken to clean bowl, pour out remaining liquid.

3.  Stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce and 4 teaspoons cornstarch.  Stir into the cooled broth.

4.  Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in hot skillet.  Over medium High heat, saute 3 teaspoons chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon peeled chopped ginger.

5.  Add in cabbage, celery, carrots and zucchini.   Cook stirring about 5 minutes till veggies are crisp tender. 

6.  Add chicken and pasta.  Toss till heated through. 

7.  Stir cornstarch mixture in saucepan.  Add to skillet - toss and cook 2-3 minutes until slightly thickened.