tejon

Breakfast: blackberry smoothie made with frozen blackberries, soy milk, protein powder, and a few ice cubes all whirled in a blender.

I want one of those!

It's definitely helping. I also took a cue from that lesson and am having him use a bowl with sides with foods that need a fork, as he has problems with fine motor skills (like the ability to use utensils). It is much easier for him to scoop food against the sides, and success makes it easier for him to keep practicing something that is difficult. We also use a round bumpy mat for him to sit on, which seems to help ground him a bit as well. Thanks for asking!

Dinner: I made up some masoor dal cooked with turmeric and ginger and topped with sauteed garlic and a bit of cilantro, cauliflower with cumin, turmeric and ginger, and basmati rice. Afterwards, leftovers are packaged up to go into the freezer for future lunches for my husband. He doesn't like leftovers in general, mainly because he's recently eaten the same thing. Freezing solves this problem since he can grab whatever looks interesting that day, along with some fruit. For Heather, I'm going to include reviews from my two boys on each of their meals. Tonight both ate the dal (always been a favorite of both of them) and rice, but the cauliflower got a thumbs down. So I subbed raw carrots and celery and all was good.

Both the boys had food allergies - my oldest was allergic to corn, soy, dairy, eggs, shellfish, peanuts, starwberries, peaches, and mangos. My youngest was allergic to wheat and corn - this made things even harder because wheat was one of the few things my older son *could* eat, so meal planning was really crazy for a while. We figured out which foods they were allergic to mainly by watching for reactions - biggest tip off was red dots around the mouth pretty soon after eating something, and dark circles under the eyes is also a marker. Some foods caused swelling around the belly and pain (corn was the main offender here), sleep problems and even behavior changes - my 2 year old would be mellow until eating something that had a little corn syrup, then would run around in circles like a whirling dirvish of activity. I learned a lot about how to cook wheat free, dairy free, corn free (this is HARD - corn is in almost everything that is even minimally processed), egg free, etc. Thankfully they no longer deal with such a list of allergies. My oldest son is still allergic to peanuts, though not in any life threatening way. That's pretty much it. I actually credit a lot of my current cooking to their allergies - I was forced to look for things we could all eat and forced to make many things from scratch that I might not have done on my own. Now we eat much differently than we did even 3 years ago. We eat much healthier food (well, for the most part ), and the things we eat have broadened a lot as well. All in all, not a bad thing. Dinner started:

Did you come back for the snacks set out in the late afternoon? Their crab dip was delicious and addictive, as I remember. (See? Everything comes right back to food )

The mug is from The Jabberwock, a bed and breakfast where my husband and I spent part of our honeymoon. We each got a mug to remind us of the trip, and I smile each time I reach for one. Lunch: Had a rare opportunity: my mother in law and sister in law decided to take the boys out to the children's museum, leaving me childless for the whole day. I ended up going to lunch with a friend out in Huntington Beach and the eating was fine. See for yourself: We ate at Mo's BBQ. I had pulled pork with cole slaw, she had the pulled beef. The pork was nicely tangy and smoky, the beef was a bit sweeter and richer in flavor. We split an order of homemade potato chips, which were thick and crisp and really good. Definintely have to find my way back there again.

Here's a link for you on badgers. Mighty fine eating, I hear.

Breakfast: stomach is a little off, so this morning it's just toast and tea. Gee, thanks. Now I have that badger song back in my head again . I think the referred to food item was the MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM!, though I'm sure badger could be braised. I'll definitely make up some of the rolls a bit later in the week. I'll also make up a few of my favorite dinners that Grandma used to make, plus the much awaited peach crisp. Dinner. I need input. Should I make chicken stir fry, dal, slow simmered beans, linguine with broccoli, or steak with chimichurri sauce? I'll make the one with the most votes, unless husband exercises his veto power.

1. My mom used to give me "sickie cookies" (essentially shortbread cookies with a bit of brown sugar tossed) if nothing was coming up, otherwise clear broth and flat ginger ale. 2. The broth probably helped a little with healing, if only to get circulation going a bit and get some fluids into me. 3. I don't really crave them now. 4. If my boys are sick, I tend to give them dry toast, plain rice, home made electrolyte solution (easier to stomach than pedialyte and easily made from things I always have on hand), then little bits of favorite foods if they are holding things down. For friends, I usually take a soup I make - clear chicken broth with some rice, thyme, minced vegetables and parsley. 5. No tie to any cultural tradition that I'm aware of. I think the cookies were a special treat to help make us feel better, and the soup was on advice by the pediatrician.

Had the best of intentions for dinner......then my mother in law showed up with pizza....... AT least I added a bit of salad

The sad thing is, I forget it's there most of the time. Very handy...when I actually remember to use it .

It's especially good for kettle corn, since the paddle stirs the caramelizing sugar around well enough so it doesn't burn. I used to use a regular pot before we got the popper, but it took a lot of careful shaking and I still usually ended up with some bits that were overdone. Plus, it's really fun to crank the handle!

Snack time Started out with these: End result:

Lunch was pretty simple and light. Salad with persian cucumbers, shredded carrot, and some coarsly chopped almonds and a simple vinaigrette, Fuji apple, and water (my drink of choice during the day): Dinner will most likely be linguine with broccoli, garlic and red pepper flakes. My sister in law is in town from Northern CA, so there most likely won't be much time to cook tonight.

I tend to make foods a bit less spicy than my husband and I like it, then add more heat to our dishes once I serve the boys. My oldest goes back and forth on spicyness - when he was a toddler he loved chile peppers and used to beg for a bit of raw onion or garlic when I was prepping for dinner, now I never know day to day if he'll want something spicier or not (he has mild autism and wide swings in food preference go with the territory). My younger son does NOT like anything spicy, but he does like a good amount of flavor and will turn down plain rice or anything too bland.

My screen name is actually the result of a joke with my husband from years ago. Every time I would make a list of any sort, he would add "badger" to the end. One day, when I was looking up another word in a Spanish-English dictionary, I happened upon the word for badger - tejon. It's become a running joke between us, and I've found that username is never taken, which is handy. I drive a lot more than is typical in other areas, but it's what I grew up with so I don't think much of driving 20 minutes to shop at Trader Joe's each week. I have a local Indian foods store that I love, and there is an asian market not even a mile away where I purchase most of my produce. I make a round of regular grocery store, Trader Joe's, and the asian market once a week, visiting other specialty stores as needed (I tend to buy dal and spices in large amounts, so I don't need to shop there as often).

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs topped with some shredded cheddar cheese, black tea. NulloModo, no worries. As I said, getting tagged later made this easier since I didn't have any time to worry about anything jgarner53, I will try to make some of my favorite recipes from Grandma, including the dessert we all still crave - peach crisp that is making me drool as I type right now. The menu, loosly followed with no particular days assigned: Chicken stir fry with green beans, rice Steak with chimichirri sauce, baked potato, bok choy Dal, cauliflower, basmati rice Slow simmered pinto beans, tortillas, cabbage slaw Linguini with broccoli, garlic and red pepper flakes My Grandma made what she called "Pepperidge Farm Rolls", buttery, rich, slightly sweet crescents that were served at every special occasion. When she stopped being able to cook, the torch was passed to me and I now make them. I've learned to make far more than you would think needed - upwards of 3 per person - since they tend to get devoured quickly. There would be dire consequences if I forgot to make the rolls. I may make up a batch later this week if there's interest. reesek, I am a native Californian, which isn't very common. I'm actually the 5th generation here, since my Great Great Grandmother moved out on orders from her doctor in hopes that the dry air would help her tuberculosis. She and her husband owned orange groves in what is now Orange County. I'm about as native as you come for someone not indiginous to the area (I am a frigheningly pale, blond person, which also stands out a bit here in SoCal!).

Good morning everyone. Sorry things got off to a later start - my oldest had nightmares all night, making the morning a bit more blurry than normal, and I just got back from dropping him off at preschool. Yawn. I remember back in college staying up all night to write a paper and being perfectly fine in the morning, but at 35 it doesn't quite work that way any more. I live at the outskirts of Los Angeles county in Diamond Bar, a smaller city at the edge of the hills and desert. It's a nice mix - LA isn't far away, but we're still out away from the city enough to enjoy hills that haven't been covered in housing. We actually have cattle grazing right over the fence from my townhouse complex. Foodwise, there are Indian and Asian communities throughout the area so it's easy to get most of the ingredients I tend to want. Meals are planned around my husband and two boys, 5 and 3. I do meal plan each week, which I'll go into in more detail on Saturday since shopping is on Sunday. I just got tagged yesterday, so what you'll see will be what was on the menu this week. I originally learned to cook by watching my grandmother. She was an incredible cook, focused on detail and how to feed her family well (she is still alive, but a series of strokes has left her unable to cook). Recently I was given her recipe box and cookbooks, which I treasure. As the keeper of the family recipes, I feel an obligation to keep those recipes alive and well by making them often and hopefully well. I got the highest possible praise last Thanksgiving when she said my rolls (the ones she made for every holiday) were as good as hers. The turn around of feeding her some of the things that are my fondest childhood memories warms my heart So, on to the blog!

Now that is a proper plate of poppers. Looks delicious.

I love those tortillas. Really nice toasted with some cheese on top :-).

I love nuts, though my favorites are pistachios, cashews, and almonds.

Limp french fries - the ones that end up extra greasy and ready to fold into a waiting mouth. I pick these out and eat them first

How do you usually prepare Spam? I haven't had it in a long time, but when I was growing up we'd pan fry it, and I remember really liking it. Now we just keep a can in the pantry....er....because every house needs a can of Spam, or something like that.

Exactly. I'm eating berries out of hand and loving every moment of it. During the summer I consume fruit with wild abandon in order to make up for slim pickings later on in the year.